Heading to Florida on New Years Day . . .

On December 28th, Dave, Darbi & I piled in the Traverse with Mom, Dad and Calie (their cat) and headed south.  Four adults, two animals & all the "provisions" we "had" to bring, packed in like sardines is an accurate description of the 13 hour ride to Brunswick, GA.   Mom, Dad & Calie dropped us off and continued on to their home-away-from-home in Sarasota.  It was a great plan!

 

After a few days of preparation, we departed Brunswick Landing Marina on a beautiful New Years Day in search of warm, sunny weather.

 

Our 1st stop was Fernandina Beach on Ameila Island, FL.  We opted for a mooring ball to help prepare us for "living on the hook" when we journey to the Dry Tortugas later in the winter.  Hooking up to the mooring ball is much less hassle than dropping the anchor & far less stressful than lying awake all night wondering if the anchor has come loose allowing us to drift into the shore or other surrounding boats. 

 

Fernandina Beach is a quaint old town & is home to Florida's oldest bar.  The Palace Saloon opened in 1878 & still operates today.

 

As we were heading back to the dinghy to ride back to the boat, a huge pelican thought it would dive down & scare Darbi.  That plan backfired!

 

Huge, beautiful homes are common place along much of the ICW in Florida.

 

After spending 2 nights in cold, rainy St. Augustine & another cold, rainy night in Daytona Beach, we found ourselves in sunny, warm Titusville.  We had only planned to spend a couple days there, but that turned into a week as we started a "small" project compounding the fly bridge & as usual it turned into a big project.  It was no hardship, as the view from our end dock slip was incredible.  We also had the opportunity to meet lots of new people while having breakfast on the back deck, chatting with them as they fueled up for their days journey.

 

Dave & Darbi managed to find time to fish off the dock.

 

 

And Dave's first official catch about knocked him over it was so big!! Yes, that is his catch on the line, not his bait!

 

We did have very large visitors on a daily basis . . . dolphins & as you can see here, manatees.  "Sea cow" is definitely an accurate nickname for them.

 

Look between the 2 pilings to see him (or her??) swimming away.  They are huge!

 

They rolled on their backs to get a drink of cold, fresh water dripping from the fenders as we hosed down the boat.  Darbi didn't know what to make of them!

 

The Titusville sunsets were also an awesome sight.

 

On the ICW, you never know what you are going to pass . . .

 

. . . or how beautiful the sun rises can be . . .

 

 

 

After many nights in marinas, we decided we were ready for anchoring out.  We found a beautiful spot behind two small spoil islands joined together by a sand bridge. 

 

It was a perfect situation for taking Darbi ashore to do her thing.  There she met another dog from a  sail boat anchored in the same area

 

Dave decided to cast a line off the starboard side, using fat from the steaks we grilled as bait.  He immediately caught a catfish, of all things!

 

Our private sunset . . .

 

 

From there it was on to Stuart, where we had a great time with Mackey and Jackie Rogers and Florida Dave & Florida Shelly.  Dave put down the fishing pole & went golfing with David & Shelly & I got a good shopping and eating fix!  Cousins Tommy & Linda Nestor & Colleen, Dragon & Amalia also joined us in Stuart.  They were vacationing in south Florida.

 

Dave spent some time catching up with the outside world on the internet.

 

We left Stuart passing through 3 bridges heading to the west coast of Florida via the Lake Okeechobee Waterway.

 

Crossing huge Lake Okeechobee was awesome . . .

 

 

We spent the night at Rohland Martin Marina on the west side of the lake.  At my Dad's suggestion, I left my purse on the boat this time as we ate breakfast at the dockside diner.  Unfortunately the girl in the dock store remembered the lady who left her purse in the restaurant a couple years ago! It's not so easy to turn around & go back & grab it when you're on a boat!

 

The Lake O Waterway has 5 locks we had to pass through.  The biggest water level drop was 14 feet.

 

What started out to be a beautiful cruising day, turned into 3-5 foot waves & 40 MPH wind gusts as we were pulling into the Ft. Myers City Marina.  Needless to say I was a bit preoccupied with docking & didn't take any pictures of our arrival.  I will say Capt. Dave did a stellar job of docking!!  I told him he earned his PHD with that one!

 

We spent 2 great days with our Kimblewick neighbor Doc Martuccio, who winters in Ft. Myers.  He showed us around town & his "winter-hood", which is absolutely beautiful.  Yes, that is a boat they are starring at the end of the dock!  It made the 45' boat in the adjacent slip look like a dinghy!

 

Our timing was perfect as the monthly Music Walk downtown was just a few blocks from the marina.  On the way back, Darbi stopped to do her thing under this tree, that was not like any tree she had ever seen.....

 

The sunset in Ft. Myers . . .

 

Then we were off to Royal Palm Marina, where we had stayed for 3 months in the winter of 2011 just after we bought the boat.  We were so excited about seeing the great friends that we had made there.  Along the way, we were joined by dolphins . . . .

 

 

We spent 4 great days catching up with Capt. Mike & Angie, George, Wayne & others.  It was so great seeing them all again!

 

We left Royal Palm on Wednesday the 23rd (Darbi's 8th birthday!) heavy 1 crew member.  My parents brought my sister Linda to the marina the night before to join us for the cruise up to Longboat Key.

 

 It was a great ride, with all the usual sights of blue waters, pelicans, dolphins, sunshine & beautiful homes . . .

 

Passing through the Sarasota Bay, we headed under the Ringling Bridge to get to our "home" for the next month in the Longboat Key Club Moorings.

 

 

 



Where have we been????

Hard to believe, but it's been almost 2 years since our last posting on the blog!  Well we've been up to an aweful lot, as you will see.  We pulled the boat out of the water on April 19, 2011 in Hampstead, NC & drove home to sell everything we own so we could get back on the boat & continue cruising with no worries as Jimmy Buffet would say.  That plan didn't quite work, so we decided to travel back & forth to NC over the winter to put our house-flipping remodeling skills to good use on the boat & then get back on it & continue cruising in comfort & new electronics euphoria.

We sanded (that would be me above), prepped, & painted the hull, decks (after 80% were re-cored) & the house.  It was a brutal process!

 

We basically gutted the inside when we had to remove the starboard fuel tank that luckily sprung a leak while on the hard.

 

Phase II became quite comfortable to live on after we replaced the walls, floors, counter tops, blinds, trim...... & of course new canvas & isenglass.

So finally on November 2, 2012 into the lift she went (see the shadow of it below) & we launched for our 2 week "shake down" cruise to get her on the right course SOUTH!  After more than 18 months, we said farewell to all of the great people that we met in Hampstead.

 

The 2 overhauled Perkins 6-354 turbo diesel engines ran perfectly & got us to Myrtle Beach without incident.  Luck would have it that Linda & Bill were visiting Matthew & Lindsay there & Stephen happened to be visiting Kendall in Charleston, so we all gathered for some local barbeque at the Grand Dunes Marina adjacent to the Grand Dunes Resort where Linda & Bill were staying. 

 

Before we departed, Dave & Bill made sure the dinghy was running well.

 

From there we headed to Charleston, SC, which is such an awesome city.  So awesome, Linda, Bill & Matthew decided to follow us down & stay on the boat with us.  Kendall also joined us for some back deck relaxing. After 3 days of enjoying the restaurants, shops & sights of Charleston, off we went.

 

Then on to Dataw Island, SC where the sunrise was blinding, but incredibly beautiful.

 

After a stop in Thunderbolt, SC & an obligatory anchoring off Sapalo Island, GA we docked the boat in Brunswick, GA on November 14th and headed home for the holidays.

 


 

 

On to Beaufort & Charleston, SC . . .

On Wednesday, April 13th, we headed off to Beaufort, SC, another beautiful old southern town full of charm.  Much to our surprise we passed this mini cruise ship snaking through the ICW.  Needless to say, we moved way over.

Dave and Darbi take a break from the flybridge and hang out on the bow for a while.  That would mean I was at the helm (aka behind the wheel) and taking pictures at the same time.  Thank God for auto pilot!  It really is like being in a real life video game.

We arrived safely in Beaufort, SC and walked through the beautiful old town.  On the way back to the boat, we spotted a cruise ship like the one we had passed earlier in the day pulling into the marina.  We found out that American Cruise Lines runs week long trips up and down the ICW.  This ship was going from Jacksonville, FL to Charleston, SC.

Darbi and I taking a break on a wooden swing along the River Walk.  Behind us you can see some of the restaurants and shops lining the walk.

Another section of the beautiful River Walk in Beaufort.

After a great evening in Beaufort, Dave & Darbi are walking down the dock to the boat.  As you can see, it was another beautiful sunset on the ICW!!

A typical night on the boat after a long day . . . Dave hits the computer and Darbi hits the bed.  That's when I work on the next day's travel plans.

On day 14 of our journey, we put Beaufort to our stern and headed for Charleston.

Here's a typical southern plantation looking house along the ICW.  Georgia and South Carolina are so different than Florida.  And I have to say I was starting to miss the hot Florida weather.  The mornings and evenings are cool and the days are just warm.  I guess it's preparation for our final destination.  We're hoping it's starting to seem like spring back home.

This was a calm beautiful section of the ICW, somewhere in SC.  That's one of the strange things about traveling the waterway, many times you really don't know where you are other than statute mile XXX on the nautical chart.  You have no idea where you are with respect to "civilization".

And around the bend from "nowhere", we came upon what appeared to be some kind of large shipyard.

So before we left RPM, to get us mentally prepared everyone kept telling us that "something" was going to go wrong . . . it's a boat after all.  We heard unfortunate stories of blown engines, running aground, failed fuel systems, etc.  Well after almost 2 weeks of cruising "something" did, but "we're so lucky to have Dave!!" (that's a little inside joke).  I'll spare you all the gory details, but the starboard engine shut down unexpectedly about 10 miles south of Charleston.  Fortunately Dave had suspected a small fuel leak in the port engine a few days earlier, so he and I spent one evening down in the engine compartment diagramming the entire fuel system.  Having done that, Dave knew the fix, but unfortunately it involved him siphoning diesel fuel.  After about an hour and a half, we were on our way.  Hopefully that's our "something" for the entire trip!!

A short while later, we pulled into the Charleston City Marina.  Yes, that big blue yacht front and center is a private boat!  We were really excited about spending some time in Charleston as the largest racing regatta was here this weekend.  Dave wanted to meet with the onsight diesel mechanic the next day, so we had planned to stay Thursday and Friday night.

After a very long day, we grilled steaks and had dinner watching the sunset.  We had a perfect spot in the marina, which by the way, Dave did a great job squeezing into.  He's really getting good a maneuvering the boat.

And it was another beautiful sunset!!!!

After finding out everything was okay with the engines, we took the shuttle to historic downtown Charleston.  Here's Dave and Darbi again patiently waiting for me to come out of the City Market.

Here's Darbi and I in front of the City Market.

Darbi didn't know what to make of the carriage horses, but of course she had to bark at them like she was twice their size!

The weather forecast predicted severe thunderstorms and high winds for Saturday, so obviously we decided to stay put.  As I type, the boat's a rockin' and the wind's a blowin!  Luckily we only had a light rain this morning, but as you can see the water has been quite rough all day. It's been a very relaxing day.  Tomorrow we are off to Georgetown, SC.