Making Tracks North

The blog will be abit boring because we lost our camera - no pics! We pulled into Jekyll Harbor Marina last Tuesday - had a wonderful day touring the island on bikes. Sometime during the ride the camera disappeared. A highlight of our time there was that we went to the Jekyll Island Club for Happy Hour with Dianna from "Strider". The Club was celebrating their 125th Anniversary with $1.25 drinks and hors doeuvres - open to the public! Next day we decided to head off shore and do a jump from St. Simons Island, GA to Beaufort, SC. A 26 hour trip. Pretty good trip; some motoring & more than half the miles were sailing. We love Beaufort - and what made it better was that Mo & George, "Passages" were driving down to Marathon, FL and we rendezvoused for an overnight on "Kismet". They left in the car on Saturday, and we did a short day to anchor in Bass Creek, off of Parrot Creek; just before thunderstorms hit. On Sunday we went on another 30 something miles, to anchor in Church Creek, just south of Charleston, before more wind & rain. Today, was a beautiful day. We did another 30 something miles to anchor in Whiteside Creek, just 47 miles south of Georgetown, SC.

Crossed Over Into Georgia

We had planned to stay in Vero for a couple of days, but after day 1 we decided to leave and head North on the inside. We anchored in Dragon Point, about 15 miles south of Cocoa. We had a fun visit, drinks and dessert on Kismet, with Jim & Joyce Ebmeyer friends from Sodus Bay that evening. Then we moved on to Cocoa, where I found a great dress for Emily's upcoming wedding. In the afternoon, "Blessed Spirit" came into the anchorage and we decided to do an outside passage from Cape Canaveral to Fernandina (about 165 miles). We moved into the barge canal in the evening to set up for an early morning exit into the Atlantic. "Blessed Spirit" went into a marina and we anchored just outside the lock in the Banana River. It was an easy passage, but no wind. So we motored the entire trip (25 hours). Picked up a mooring in Fernandina, and went to the Aveda Salon for a much needed haircut. Lo and behold, Jim & Sue on "Palmetto Moon" arrived in Fernandina also. So we spent time with them, as well as, Corning & Tita on "Blessed Spirit". Today, we left the mooring, and motored less than 10 miles to St. Marys, GA. After many trips up and down the ICW, we have never been here, so since we have plenty of time to get to Deltaville , VA, we are doing some sightseeing! It is good we stopped because Jim discovered that the fan belt badly needed replacing, and the oil needed changing. We also don't want to get north to quickly, because of cooler weather!. I had to get out the sweatshirts!

Jim Plays Lego with Judy's Grandson - William

 

The Perfect ICW Sail

After spending two really fun days with the McBrayer Clan on Jupiter Island, we weighed anchor at 8:00 am with no particular plan. We thought maybe we would go as far as Peck Lake, but soon decided to put up the sails and see how things went. It was a very slow sail until we got to Saint Lucie Inlet, and then we caught the current and wind - we were moving at 8 knots! It was a beam reach all the way to Fort Pierce, where we decided to anchor for the night - Today we'll go to Vero.

May All Your Bridges Be High Ones!

To make progress North after eight days in Lauderdale (where you had a great time!), we left on Thursday. The seas were still pretty rough, so we made the decision to go on the ICW - so after 25 draw bridges and two days of motoring, we are anchored in Hobe Sound off of the Jupiter Island Club. I have good friends who live here from high school days. Jim is driving around in Judy's Porsche, watching TV, and taking long, hot showers! I am doing laundry, catching up with my buddy, and also enjoying the showers. We will be here til Monday, when we will move further North.

Is Laurie Prescient?

Back in Ft Lauderdale earlier than we had hoped to be but it pertains to the title question. Last year she wanted to return to the States sooner than expected and we were dealt the appendicitis card, this year we have returned early again. Do I have appendicitis? No. However, the weather will become winter like in the Bahamas and we would have made us dodge these fronts during our northwest Bahama time. Again she picked the right time to leave(I never want to leave). The trip back was very comfortable albeit the wind was a tad bit far aft to make good speed(5 kts). Never the less, night time was as magic as it could ever be. The half moon provided a silver highway as we slid down the 4-6' swell. After moon set, the stars lit the arena and I was humbled by my puny knowledge of the many constellations. Day break came and the spinnaker powered us across the banks and into the Florida straits. Unfortunately in order to make the vectors work to overcome the Gulf Stream we would have needed 20 kts of wind and we were 10 short. Thank you Rudolf Diesel.

Sunset Approaching Fort Lauderdale

 

Made a Successful Crossing

We are back in the USA! We decided to head back West to Florida rather than going to the Abacos since we do need to be in the Chesapeake mid-April. After checking the weather for a few days, we left Spanish Wells (north of Eleuthera) at 9:00am on March 28th, passed north of Nassau, headed into the Northwest Channel, across the Banks, and exited the Bahamas just north of Bimini. We arrived at Fort Lauderdale at 10:00pm on March 29th - 196 miles! It was a good crossing - not rough and we sailed (no motorsailing) for 136 miles. Checking in with the local boaters option was very easy - just a phone call. Recovering today in Middle River, Fort Lauderdale.