Stuart (Day 58, 59, 60, 61 and 62)

Saturday, November 23rd (Day 58 - yesterday was start of week 9)

We relaxed in the morning and I ran the new Honda generator for a while to charge batteries.  Today was one of those no-Sun, no-wind days so our solar panels and wind generator were not helping.

As we were not moving, I decided to do aerobics and some strength exercises in the salon.  I have 10 "Total Body Sculpt" recorded and stored on my computer which are about 20 minute workouts by Gilad Janklowicz so played the first one and worked out with him.  I used to do several of these a week but stopped for some reason back in May.  We do stay active and have done a few workouts on the back deck but aerobics are a great way to loosen up muscles that are not used much.  20 minutes of aerobics with a set of 15 push-ups during the 3 commercials plus curls and shoulder weights at the end.  I was pretty tired afterwards since I hadn't done this in a while.

Later in the afternoon we decided to take our laundry into the Marina.  Almost all of our "winter" clothes were somewhat dirty from the last few weeks so we decided to do them all then pack them away.  We've found that many more washers and dryers are available if we do laundry later in the afternoon and it was true this time too.  Of the 6 washers, only one was in-use.  We put in 3 big loads then relaxed on the comfy porch chairs.  50 minutes later we moved the clothes into the dryers.

Since nobody else was using the laundry, we figured it would be OK to leave the dryers running and go to happy-hour at one of our favorite local eateries - the Pelican Cafe.  It is only about a 10 minute walk from the marina and they have "beach seating" with tables in beach sand.  It's not actually on the beach.  Just beach sand under the tables.

Food and drinks were good at usual and the seafood chowder was excellent.  Since it was a little early for our dinner, we just had a couple cocktails and appetizers.  There was a very good guitar player / singer doing Caribbean style music which we also enjoyed.  Here was our happy-hour setting at the Pelican Cafe.

We walked back to the marina a short while later to collect our big basket of laundry and haul it back to the boat.  Laura was going to make homemade pizza for dinner but there wasn't enough time for the 2-3 hours of dough preparation.  Instead we made a big breakfast for dinner.  Here was the sunset on our way back to the marina.  I didn't edit this picture - very colorful on it's own.

The marina wi-fi was coming in pretty good so we watched a movie on our TV then several Cheers episodes.  I didn't sleep well because of being sore from the workout.  Should have taken ibuprofen before coming to bed instead of at 5am.

Sunday, November 24th (Day 59)

After the ibuprofen at 5am, I slept almost straight through to 10am.  Sometimes, it's nice to catch-up on sleep instead of going through the day tired.

I was pretty energized and decided to work a couple boat projects that I had been putting off because they were going to be messy.  Our LoPro bilge pump had been acting up and needed to be replaced.  Also, the engine room smelled of oil and antifreeze from the past few weeks of motoring.  Time to get to work!

Our bilge on this boat is very wet.  Mostly from rain coming down the main mast and the dripping shaft seal.  For the first several years, I used big bilge pumps (a primary and a spare) but the water level had to get to 4-5 inches before they would turn on.  As we are on a boat that moves around, the water sloshes and eventually gets to the bottom of our fuel tank and water tank.  After I had the fuel tank repaired 5 years ago (to the tune of $5,000), I researched and found this Rule LoPro bilge pump that keeps the water level to less than 2 inches.  Now the bilge water never gets high enough to slosh up to the fuel tank.  I still have a big, 2,500 gallon / hour bilge pump as a backup.

I like the LoPro because it keeps our bilge water very low but it seems to require constant monitoring and cleaning.  It has a built-in water level sensor so works automatically until the sensor gets dirty.  Then it either doesn't work at all, stays on all the time or switches to a timer mode and turns on every 5 minutes.  As it is working in a dirty environment, it needs cleaning often.  The pump currently installed was only working right for about a day.  Then it either stayed on all the time or cycled every 5 minutes.  I think it was a gonner.

Anyway, I have two spare LoPros.  A brand new one still in the box and a used one I pulled out last year because it was only working in timer-mode.  After cleaning it really well, I decided to try the used pump.  That was my first job of the morning and went pretty smoothly.  Once I had the pump replaced, I ran some fresh water in the bilge to confirm the operation.  It worked as advertised so I'll keep an eye on it.

The oil pads under the engine had lots of oil and some antifreeze on them so I figured this was where the smell was coming from.  It had been several weeks (months?) since we've replaced these pads so I pulled out the old pads, cleaned everything up and put down new pads.  You might ask where the oil and antifreeze comes from?  This diesel engine has over 25,000 hours and has never been rebuilt since new in 1981.  It has some oil and antifreeze leaks that I just can't get to and are not bad enough for a major repair so I live with them.  Sometime in the next year or two I'll probably replace it with a new main engine but I'm not looking forward to that job.

We never did make it off the boat today.  After the cloudy skies in the morning and working several boat jobs, we decided to stay put.  Laura made pizza for dinner which we actually ate in the cockpit for the first time in several months.  It was a nice evening "outdoors" and we talked for quite a while. Later in the evening we retired to the salon where we watched a new series (for us) on Netflix called Father Brown.  It's a little bit of "who done it" set in the 1950s and is entertaining but not sure we will watch all 6 seasons.

Laura made Shrimp and broccoli (with Alfredo sauce) for me and pepperoni for herself.  Forgot to take a "before" picture but here are the leftovers.

Monday, November 25th (Day 60)

We were up early and eventually decided to sand then put another coat of AwlWood gloss on our teak combing.  As we had 3 coats built up, I ran the power sander to get off the high spots then we put on the 4th coat a little while later.  Laura started baking for Thanksgiving at the marina - a pumpkin roll.  I worked a few boat projects but not much else going on with Second Wind.

Not much going on today.  We read a bit, worked a few minor boat jobs, played a little music and watched TV.   Pretty sunset again tonight.

Tuesday, November 26th (Day 61)

We've been sleeping well with the warm days and cool nights.  Last night we closed all the windows because it was going into the 50s overnight.

Once it warmed up a bit, we put a little thicker coat of AwlWood on the teak combing to start building up volume.  It's looking pretty good now.  Just need to build up the coats enough so I can do one more heavy sanding then a final coat with a good tip brush.

Today was grocery day.  In the late morning, we took the dinghy into the town dock which is about 3 blocks closer to Publix than the marina.  We had our luggage wheelie and fold-up crate because we were going to get enough food for the next 1-2 weeks.  Our freezers were still fairly well stocked so we didn't need meat or fish.  This Publix is smaller than some of the others and a little more expensive.

We loaded 11 bags of groceries into the wheelie crate and hauled it all back to the city park.  Living on a boat isn't all fun and games ya know...

We just about filled up the dinghy with all the groceries.  Back at the boat, I pulled along side and we both lifted the bags onto the deck.  Then I tied off the dinghy at the stern and we hauled each bag from the deck into the cockpit then down the stairs to the galley.

While Laura was packing away the groceries, I took the dinghy into the marina for our mail and a few Amazon packages.  One of the packages was water filter cartridges for our house water system and another was a spare gallon of Rotella oil for our main engine (Yep.  It does leak a little while running).

We put the 6th coat of AwlWood on the combing later in the afternoon. 

Laura practiced some songs on her Dolcimer from her new songbook (thanks Amazon) and I played guitar for a bit.  After sunset I cooked burgers on the grill then we watched a few episodes of the Great British Baking Show.

Wednesday, November 27th (Day 62)

Another nice sleeping night and, near morning, Laura pulled on a second blanket because it was getting a little cool in the bedroom.

After a nice breakfast, I changed the house water filter cartridge and the cartridge in the filter I use when filling our tank from the marina.  Our sink drain broke a few weeks ago - the stopper doesn't come up anymore when you push down the lever.  I tried pushing the rod into the drain a bit more so it would catch the stopper but it was all rotted away.  I put a new sink drain on my list for the hardware store.

I dropped the dinghy then filled up it's fuel tank with my 1/2 full jug.  Now I have 3 empty 5-gallon gasoline jugs to fill at the marina fuel dock when we leave here.  It will be about $1 / gallon cheaper than if I wait for the Florida Keys.

We also needed more foam paint brushes so decided to take a walk through town to the Ace Hardware.  Another beautiful day for a walk but it was actually getting warm.  We found ourselves looking for the shady side of the streets to stay out of the Sun.  It did get to 81 here today.

At the Ace Hardware, we found the paint brushes and maybe a sink drain that would fit.  Don't forget, this is a boat.  Usually the stuff from a hardware store doesn't fit and you have to order from a marine store which is 3 times more expensive.

On the way back, I talked Laura into another stop at the Sushi / Chinese Buffet.  This would probably be my last chance before leaving here.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving (big party at the marina) and we are scheduled to leave on Friday.

Here was my (first) plate of sushi from the Sakura Buffet.  It was awesome!

I didn't fill up as much this time so we had a more pleasant walk back to the marina and our dinghy.  The marina is starting to get ready for the big dinner tomorrow with ovens, tables, chairs and lots of other stuff being setup.  Tonight they are having music from 8-11.  Might be a little late for us.

Here the plan for the cruise to Marathon.  The first goal is to get to Biscayne Bay which is about 90-100 miles from here.

We've never been out the St. Lucie Inlet but I have really good charts if we decided to do it.  If the weather is nice, we could do an overnight from there to Biscayne Bay which is about 100 miles.  The other option is to take the ICW from here to Lake Worth which we've done several times.  It's about 35 miles on the ICW but there are 7 bridges that have to open for us.  The last 4 are on schedules which we can't usually make easily so it is a long day.

But, from Lake Worth, it is only 60 miles to Miami and 70 miles to Biscayne Bay.  If we left early in the morning, we could be there by early evening and not have to run all night with the associated lack of sleep.

The current off-shore forecasts call for so-so weather on Saturday (4 foot seas, 5-6 seconds) which will probably be a bumpy ride but good winds for sailing down the coast.  Next Tuesday or Wednesday looks like the next window with winds from the west (off the shore) and lighter seas.  But, by time we leave here on Friday the forecast could be totally different.  We'll just have to enjoy Thanksgiving at the marina and try to find good sailing weather.

Indiatlantic to Ft. Pierce (Day 56) to Stuart (Day 57)

Thursday, November 21st (Day 56)

We motored out of our anchorage around 8am on another sunny, no wind day.  It was in the high 60s and I started out today with shorts for the first time.

I had really hoped to sail much of the Indian River from Titusville to Ft. Pierce but the winds were only 4-5 knots so didn't really help.  But, it was a lovely day with the ICW traffic seeming a little less.  Maybe we're getting south of where people are staying for a while?

We motored with a little help from the jib through Vero Beach.  After Vero, the ICW opens up a bit and we were actually able to turn off the engine for the last 2 hours to Ft. Pierce.  I think this is the first engine-off sailing since before Myrtle Beach.  It was quite nice as the boat ran 5-6 knots with the jib and 1/2 main.

Around 3pm, we pulled into the Ft. Pierce City Marina for fuel and water.  This was the cheapest fuel stop around at $2.87 / gallon for diesel.  Our last fuel and water stop was 12 days ago in Myrtle Beach, 549 nautical miles ago.  We took 93 gallons of diesel (5.9 miles to the gallon - good for a 21 ton boat) and about 180 gallons of water.  This added over 2,100 pounds to Second Wind and it always surprises me how much lower we sit in the water.  Using the fuel and water is a gradual thing over a week or two so I don't really notice the change.  Filling takes about 1/2 hour so you really see the difference.  I call the boat a "big wallowing pig" after filling our tanks.  Laura doesn't like that saying...

After leaving the fuel dock, we motored across the ICW about 2 miles to the Ft. Pierce Causeway anchorage.  This is a easy-in, easy-out anchorage but open to the south.  Tonight the winds were light from the east so it was perfect.  Almost too perfect...  Usually there might be 2 or 3 other boats here.  Today there were 16.  Still plenty of room to anchor in 15 feet of water but I couldn't anchor in my normal spot.  Oh well.  Can't always have what you want.

We spent the rest of the night in the quiet anchorage.  I practiced guitar for awhile and Laura brought out her Dolcimer and played a bit.  She's getting much better!

Friday, November 22nd (Day 57)

Today was a short run to Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart but we were up early so left around 7:30am anyway.  It was very calm morning on the Indian River and we had the whole waterway to ourselves for about 2 hours.  This picture almost looks black and white because of the clouds.

The rest of the ICW fleet woke up an hour or two after us and caught us before the Jensen Beach Bridge.  Lots of boats on the waterway today - from both directions!

No problems with the turn into the St. Lucie River (one of the tricky areas for shoaling) and we tied to a mooring at Sunset Beach Marina around 12:30pm.  I was pleasantly surprised that there were several mooring available.  Usually, they are pretty popular and sometimes we have to anchor for a night or two before one opens up.  Oh yeah.  I forgot why it wasn't so busy.  Last year the marina increased their mooring rates $35 to $45 / night - one of the most expensive moorings on the east coast.  The weekly rate is $225 so a little better. 

Like many marinas, Sunset Bay tries to get boats to stay longer so make the monthly rates much more reasonable than the daily or weekly.  Check this out.  The weekly mooring rate is $225 but you can stay a whole month for $450.  It's like getting 2 weeks free!

We cleaned up a bit then dropped the dinghy and motored into the marina dinghy dock.  After going to the office for check-in and paying for a week, we walked about 3/4 mile to the Publix shopping-center.  I had been really looking forward to the Chinese Buffet so we skipped lunch today and made this our lunch / dinner.  This is the best Chinese Buffer I've ever been to.  It's actually a Japanese Buffet but they have all the normal Chinese dishes you find at a Chinese Buffet.  They have a huge Sushi-Bar with real Sushi and 10-15 different tasty sushi rolls.  Usually, when you see Sushi in a Chinese Buffet, it's veggie-sushi.  Even when they have raw fish, it usually a small piece of fish and a big hunk of rice.  Not at the Sakura Japanese Buffet.  They have the best salmon and tuna sushi and I really enjoyed it by eating way too much.  By the way, the lunch was $10 a person.  How do they do it?

We stopped at Publix for a few fresh veggies than waddled back to the boat.  I'm glad we had about 3/4 miles to settle the huge lunch I ate.

Back at the marina Laura signed us up for their Thanksgiving dinner.  Like many marinas, Sunset Bay is supplying the turkey and the boaters the side dishes.  She is making sausage-stuffing and something for dessert. 

Since it was a sunny day, our solar panels had kept up with power usage and even nicely topped off our batteries while we were gone.  We worked a few boat jobs and I placed an order on Amazon plus had a package of mail sent to us here.  Our current mailing address is a mail service (TravelingMailbox.com) that collects our mail and we can view it on-line.  If there are some things we need in person, we can have it shipped to wherever we are. 

Our weather has been very nice the past few days and we are even going to miss the next two cold fronts that will hit the east coast.  Check out this forecast for Stuart, FL.

Pretty sunset pic that Laura took from our mooring at Sunset Bay Marina.

Tomorrow we will settle in.  This is a great place to take walks and we'll visit a few favorite places for lunch - especially the Sushi bar again.

Daytona to Titusville (Day 54) to Indiatlantic (Day 55)

Tuesday, November 19th (Day 54)

It was a sunny but cool morning as we pulled up the anchor and motored south from Daytona.  I had on sweatpants and sweatshirt but was able to change back to shorts in just a couple hours.

This trip south seems to be all good tides for us.  Sometimes in the past, it has seemed like the tides are always against us and slowing the boat down.  For example, we will approach an inlet that is on a flood tide so it slows us down.  As we get near the inlet, the tide changes to ebb and also slows us down on the other side.  On those days, we average less than 5 knots.

But this trip, we are getting pay-back and this morning was a great example.  On the way to New Smyrna approaching Ponce Inlet, the tide was going out and we averaged 6.5-7 knots. As we approached the inlet, the tide changed and pushed us out the other side to New Smyrna.  I don't think we ever dropped below 6 knots all morning.  That's good for us.

After New Smyrna it's a little less than 20 miles down the Mosquito Lagoon.  Winds were light but from the right direction (from the side or slightly behind us) so we rolled out the jib which increased our speed to 7 knots.  I pulled back the throttle to bring us back to 6 knots which was all we needed to make our next destination by late afternoon.  Putting the boat in neutral with just the sails pulling slowed us to under 4 knots so that wasn't good enough.

A little while later, I decided to do some exercises so cranked up Billy Joel (great aerobics music) and configured the back deck for a little room.  Laura snapped this picture while she was driving.  Not easy doing aerobics while the boat is moving.

We were passed by many boats (as usual) but two sailboats stayed behind us all day.  I was impressed that they stayed about 1/4 mile behind us because our speed changed a lot as the wind increased or decreased.  We had a little sailboat train going.

All 3 of us entered the Haulover Canal (going to Cape Canaveral) and went through the bridge together.  At the other end of this section, we again turned downwind and all of us rolled out sails again for the 5 mile run to Titusville.

We pulled in the jib as we motored under the Titusville Bridge and quickly turned right and anchored the boat behind the causeway.  5 minutes later the other two boats that were following us all day pulled in behind us and also anchored.  We had sailed together all day and never even spoke on the radio to each other.

As it was only 3pm and we were anchored for the night, I decided to remedy that.  I was able to read the name of the boat closest to us with our binoculars so called Equinox on the radio.  They answered right away and we switch to a working channel on the radio.  I mentioned what a great day it was with the nice weather and being able to get sails out.  We talked a bit and I noticed they were towing their dinghy so it was easily available. I invited them over for cocktails and munchies.  They immediately accepted and we set a get-together for 4:15pm.  They also told me the name of the boat traveling with them so I called and invited them too.  It's party time!

I showered then cleaned up the boat a bit and it was still 1/2 hour before the party so I pulled out my guitar and practiced a few songs.  I saw them heading our way in the dinghy so put the guitar away and helped them aboard.  This is a lot of what cruising is about.  We had never met or even talked before the last hour but now we were talking about all of our experiences and having a great time.  Here's the deal.


Rich and Ruthie on Equinox left Rhode Island in early October.  Rich mentioned they have seen us about a dozen times starting with Chesapeake City (over 1,000 miles ago).  They are recently retired and are looking forward to the Bahamas this winter or farther into the Caribbean.

John and Ken on Arimus (sp?) are not related but John's daughter is marrying Ken's son next summer.  John left Toronto in September and was actually in the Catskill Creek having his mast stepped around the time we left. Ken joined him in Catskill "for a few days" and is still on the boat almost 2 months later.

Both boats are heading to Vero Beach where they will stay until over the holidays.  Here's a picture of all of us.

Everyone left just before dark.  It was great to make new friends.

I grilled chicken for dinner and we watched another Arnold movie - Junior.  Too funny...

Wednesday, November 20th (Day 55)

We were underway just before 8am with hopes of sailing down the Indian River most of the day.  It was only about 35 miles to our next anchorage so we'd have plenty of time even if we were going slow.  But, it was not to be.  The winds never got high enough to help us along.  Instead, we decided to put a couple more coats of AwlWood on our teak combing around the cockpit.  We have to take off the mainsheet, jib sheet and some of our clear canvas to work on the combing so that keeps us from sailing until it's dried.  After 4 coats of clear AwlWood, I think it's starting to look pretty good.

The winds stayed pretty calm all day and we had a nice, relaxing ride south.  Around 1:30pm, we pulled into the anchorage south of the Melbourne Bridge on the east side.  It was early to stop but there wasn't another anchorage with protection from north winds within the next 20 miles.

After securing the boat from moving-mode, we cleaned up a bit and dropped the dinghy for a ride into the town of Indiatlantic.  We did find a place to tie up in a small park by the water and were able to lock the dinghy to a park bench with out long cable.

So, if you are walking through a town and 90% of the stores are Real-estate, Hair / Nail Salons or Medical offices, you know you are in Florida.  It's pretty funny.

We walked about a mile to the other side of the town to the ocean beach.  Laura was in her element now so I just walked around town a bit then met her back at the beach ramp later.

There was a little more wind on this side and some nice surf coming in.  Here's a picture of the beach with Laura in the background.

It was too early for dinner out but we did find a Cold Stone Creamery to split a dish of ice-cream.  The Sun was baking us on our way back and I mentioned to Laura that we were back in the "Florida Sun".  It is definitely hotter down here because it's higher in the sky.

We took a little ride in the dinghy checking out the beautiful homes along the water.  Back to the boat for relaxing, working on the blog and maybe another Arnold movie?

From here, it's about 45 miles to Ft. Pierce where we will get fuel and water at the city marina.  We're getting a little low on both.  Last fill-up was in Myrtle Beach 11 days ago and we've done a lot of moving since then.

Plans are to head to Stuart on Friday and pick up a mooring for a week or so at Sunset Bay Marina.  The moorings are first-come, first-served so if there isn't one available, we will anchor for a couple days and keep checking for an open ball.

St Augustine to Daytona (Day 53)

Monday, November 18th (Day 53)

We slipped the mooring in time to make the 7:30am opening of the Bridge of Lions Bridge.  There were 7 or 8 sailboats bunched up leaving St. Augustine but, over the next several miles, we gradually opened up. 

It was another cloudy morning but not too cold.  After we were underway a bit, I checked the temp and it was 53.  I think that was the high for yesterday.  At exactly 8:21am, the Sun came out for a few minutes for the first time in 6 days.  A few hours later, the skies cleared and we had a beautiful day with temps near 70.

As it warmed, we started peeling clothes and cleaning up the boat from the cold weather.  We polished then removed the back two clear panels from our cockpit and eventually opened up the whole but to air /dry out.  Laura drove for a bit while I polished / cleaned the rest of our clear vinyl and worked a few other boat jobs.

We jockeyed for ICW position all day with other sailboats and were passed by many powerboats.  On the nice days, the waterway is very busy with boats heading south.  We're hoping it will let up soon as some boats reach their November / December destination.  We're going all the way...

Winds were helping a little later in the day and I rolled out the jib to push us a little against the tidal current.  Here we are approaching the first Daytona Bridge - Ormond Beach

Three years ago, we stopped in Daytona and took the dinghy into Caribbean Jacks - a well known restaurant on the Halifax River.  I happened to try their Mahi BLT sandwich and was hooked.  The combination of blackened Mahi-Mahi, apple smoked bacon, the spicy sauce and potato roll were awesome.  Laura and I have tried to duplicate this sandwich and never quite get it right.

Soon after anchoring and putting the boat to bed, we dropped the dinghy and motored 2 miles back to Caribbean Jacks where we tied up for happy-hour and dinner.  I don't think the picture does the Mahi BLT justice but here's what 1/2 of one looks like.  We also had the New England Clam Chowder which was very good too.  Lots of clams and not too salty.  Yumm.

Since we hadn't been out to eat for a while, we decided to splurge on dessert.  Check out the ingredients in the Banana's Foster and the picture below.

The dessert cost almost as much as our entre' but it was very tasty.  The sauce with Banana liquor and Rum was so good.....

We arrived back at the boat just after sunset and I hauled up the dinghy to end a very nice day on the water.  Laura noticed two bright stars and found out they were Saturn over Jupiter.  She was able to get this picture with her Nikon.

Pretty cool, right?

Tomorrow we will shoot for Titusville then take a few days to sail down the Indian River to Ft. Pierce then Stuart.  I was back in shorts today!  Yea!

South Amelia River to St. Augustine (Day 50, 51 and 52)

Friday, November 15th (Day 50 - Start of week 8)

It was a pretty comfortable night until 5am when the tide changed and tried to push the boat north against the 20mph winds.  The boat ended up sideways to the wind (and small waves) that made the boat heel-over a little with the wind blowing on our masts.  When I got out of bed, it was a slightly uphill walk to the bathroom.

It rained on and off through the night and around 7am it seemed to calm a bit so I decided to pull up the anchor and get going.  After normal morning engine checks, starting the engine and turning on all the electronics, I put on my raingear top and went outside to run the anchor windlass.  Laura's job is to squeeze up to (into?) the anchor locker and make sure the chain doesn't jam as I'm pulling in the hook.

As soon as I went out on the deck, it seemed like the wind and rain really picked up.  I was getting pelted with horizontal rain that kept blowing the jacket hook off my head.  I finally gave up trying to keep it on and just put up with the rain.

I used the anchor windlass to pull up the chain enough to detach our anchor snubber.  This is a 5/8" line attached to the bow at the waterline.  There is a special hook that attaches the other end to our anchor chain.  The purpose is so the anchor and chain hold the boat at a lower angle (water line instead of anchor pulpit) which makes it stronger and the boat moves less at anchor.

Unfortunately, the wind and currents had the boat sideways to our anchor chain and the chain-hook at the end of the snubber would jam as I was trying to pull it on board.  I eventually had to go back inside and put the transmission in reverse so the engine would pull the boat backwards and move the anchor chain in front of the boat.  A short time later I had the snubber line removed and stowed away.

Then I had to go back in and take the transmission out of reverse so the windlass could pull in the chain.  Our windlass couldn't overcome the combined pull of the wind, tidal current and engine trying to move the boat backwards.  I was able to pull in about 20 feet (out of 100) but then the wind and current pushed the boat sideways again to the chain and it wouldn't come in.  I yelled as loud as I could to Laura who was only about 5 feet below me in the chain locker.  She needed to come up on the helm and put the boat in reverse again.

She eventually heard me and came up into the cockpit.  I pointed towards the back of the boat so show what I needed - put the boat in reverse and move backwards.  By alternating reverse and neutral, I was able to get in about another 50 feet of chain.  I then motioned for her to go back to the chain locker to prevent any jams in the chain coming on board.  About 10 minutes later I had all the chain up and the anchor stowed on the bow.

This was probably the worst time we've had getting the anchor up in 13 years we've sailed Second Wind.  It took us 1/2 hour for a normally 5 minute job and I was soaked from head to sneakers.  Once we were underway with the rain coming down in buckets and the wind howling, I checked the weather radar on my cell phone.  We were right in the middle of yellow and red shit.  Of course, I should have checked this before starting to leave.  Even now I don't know why I didn't.

When I went out to pull the anchor, I unzipped and opened the clear plastic panel on the back of our cockpit - we had the full enclosure up to keep the weather out and be a little warmer driving.  Through all the shenanigans of pulling up the anchor and coming back in a few times, the wind had blown hard enough to pull the zipper apart.  Now we couldn't close that panel and the rain was coming in.  Laura spent the next 15-20 minutes working on keeping it closed against the wind and rain.

Lastly, the top on our bimini is 8 years old and near the end of it's life.  As marine canvas gets older, it becomes brittle and the threads holding it together deteriorate from the UV.  The threads right over my head had shrunk and deteriorated enough that it was dripping all around me while driving the boat.  It was a miserable next couple hours for the Captain.

Over the next hour or two, the rain finally quit and the north wind died a bit.  We crossed the St. Johns River (near Jacksonville) in much clearer weather and enjoyed the tidal current pushing us down the inside of Jacksonville Beach toward St. Augustine.  I finally changed into dry clothes because it didn't make sense to put on dry clothes while I was getting dripped on constantly.  When I took off my sneakers, the water was dripping out of them.

All along this section are huge, beautiful houses.  I took a picture of this one because it has a putting green on the right side of the waterside lawn.  I thought that was pretty cool.

The rest of the day was uneventful and we tied up to a mooring at St. Augustine Municipal Marina at 2:30pm.

Laura helped me drop the dinghy and put the motor on.  I went into the marina and paid our mooring for 2 nights ($50) and took a short walk around the waterfront.  Laura decided to stay on the boat and clean up a bit from all the crappy weather.  She also made chicken soup for dinner.  Yumm.

We watched a movie on Netflix and I hit the sack around 9pm.  Tomorrow should be an easier day.

Saturday, November 16th (Day 51)

Around 10am I got tired of being cold so started the Honda generator and turned on our heat.  It quickly warmed up the boat and became very comfortable.  We had planned on leaving tomorrow so wanted to walk to the grocery store (about 2 miles) and would Uber back with the groceries.  I went out 3 or 4 times to check the weather and it drizzled all day.  Not a good day for a walk and very unusual for St. Augustine in November. 

Between the drizzle, howling wind and cold temps, we decided to bag the walk and take the day off.  We worked a few boat projects, Laura took out one of her 3 sewing machines to sew a bit and we watched TV from our iPhone and a couple movies from the computer.  It was a nice relaxing day considering how nasty it was outside.

I called the marina office and extended our stay for another night.  We'll be here until Monday when the weather is supposed to be much nicer for traveling.  We'll also try to repair some of the leaks in our bimini top to make it last until this winter when we will make a new one.

Slow Cruisin' came through the harbor in the late afternoon and picked up a mooring on the other side of the bridge.  We had planned on going out to dinner together in town but made a group decision to stay put because of the weather.  Laura grilled a couple pork chops and almost the last of our veggies for dinner.  Gotta get to the grocery store tomorrow!

Sunday, November 17th (Day 52)

Another morning begins with me filling up the gas tank in the Honda generator and running it to get the boat warm.  It was 61 inside the boat this morning.  Not nasty but cool - especially for St. Augustine.

It was supposed to be cloudy this morning then partly cloudy this afternoon.  That didn't work as we never saw the Sun all day -  I think it's been 4 days now.

Just before noon, we dropped the dinghy and went into town.  I had on 2 shirts, a hooded sweatshirt and a jacket.  Laura also wore gloves but I decided not to.  We were both a little stir-crazy and Laura hadn't been off the boat since Brunswick 4 days ago. It was a brisk walk to Winn Dixie and West Marine (they are in the same little mall) but we stopped at the Metro Diner for lunch first.  I guess we both forgot it was Sunday and the place was packed.  We waited about 1/2 hour for a table.  Lunch was so-so.  I had a fish sandwich while Laura had the tomato-fan salad.  It was pretty inexpensive at $25 including tip.

I spent about $60 at West Marine and we spent $170 at Winn Dixie.  We Uper'd (is that a word now?) back to the marina and barged all our groceries back to the boat in the dink.  A short while later I had the dinghy hauled up on the davits and Laura had the groceries put away.

Not much going on the rest of the day.  Sometime after dark the winds finally started to calm down and I could see the stars for the first time in quite a while when I grilled burgers for dinner.

At lunch today, Laura drank her ice water a little fast and felt a pain in her forehead.  I jokingly said, "Maybe it's a tumor?"  She followed with the Arnold Schwarzenegger accent, "It's not a tumor!"  So, back at the boat, we had to watch Kindergarten Cop (where that line comes from) followed by True Lies (one of my favorite action movies.)

Tomorrow we will head to Daytona and anchor for at least one night.  It's supposed to be in the low 70s there tomorrow.  Yea!

Our short-term goal is to make Stuart for Thanksgiving then look for a weather-window for an overnight down the coast to Biscayne Bay and The Keys around December 1st.

Brunswick, GA to South Amelia River, FL (Day 48 & 49)

Wednesday, November 13 (Day 48)

We both slept well last night since we only had 3-4 hours sleep the night before.  I think I slept 9 hours.

After breakfast and a relaxing morning, I talked Laura into talking a walk around Brunswick to loosen up the legs a little.  It was supposed to rain during the afternoon so we "bit the bullet" and bundled up for the 52 degree temps and 15 mph winds.

We both warmed up about a mile into the walk and it wasn't too cold.  Our walk was only 2 miles but my legs were getting tired as we approached the marina.  It was a nice to breath the fresh air and I was glad we did it.  I took this picture after we returned to the boat.  Doesn't look like south Georgia in November, does it?

I worked a few boat projects in the afternoon and it actually never rained but it stayed very windy.  Around 3:30pm I decided it was guitar and cocktail time so took a small glass of tequila into the cockpit with my 12-string for a little music.  Laura joined me for some nice harmony.

A short while later we showered and changed (into slightly better clothes than sweatpants) and walked up to the clubhouse for happy-hour with the other boaters.  Brunswick Landing Marina offers free beer (24/7) and free wine during happy-hour Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. It usually runs from 5-6:30pm and many of the boaters attend to mingle and talk about where they have been or going.

Everyone brings a dish to share and the food was pretty good.  I ate well enough that we didn't need dinner.  Laura struck up a conversation with our dockmates who were new to cruising.  We found out they went around Cape Hatteras because the Dismal Swamp was overgrown with duckweed.  I asked why they didn't take the ICW through the Virginia Cut past Coinjocks like we did.  They didn't know about it.  Oh boy.  They need to get better information on where they are going.  Instead of 2-3 beautiful days down the ICW staying at nice anchorages every night, they sailed 2 days around one of the worst capes on the east coast.  I really didn't know what to say...

We returned to the boat and relaxed watching something on Netflix.

Thursday, November 14th (Day 49)

We were up early and out of the marina by 7am.  I wanted to get past Fernandina today and sometimes the tides really slow you down.

The north wind helped us all day as we used the jib to increase speed.  This section had a few problems areas that we were very familiar with.  Jekyll Creek is a notorious shallow spot but was dredged this summer so I wasn't too worried about it.  But...  three tugboats towing a dredge and all it's pipe were coming through the narrow channel and we met them right in the middle.  If the tide hadn't been up 7 1/2 feet, they would have definitely pushed us out of the channel and aground.  As it was, we were down to 6 feet under the boat even though I tried to stay close to the pipes and the channel.  Here's a picture Laura took as we were going by all the equipment.  The whole thing was about 1/2 mile long.

After passing through Jekyll Creek, the ICW goes way out into the ocean to get around the shallow areas in St. Andrews Sound.  We heard boats talking on the marine radio about 6 foot confused seas in that section.  I decided to try a new route that I had heard about from reading the ICW Facebook pages.  I downloaded the route to my phone and followed it around the shallows to bypass the ocean passage.  Check out the picture below which is from our chart-plotter after we went through.

The black line going to the right side is the ICW through St. Andrews Sound.  Notice how it goes out into the ocean, then back to Cumberland Island.  All of the little yellow drops are hazards you have to watch out for.  Because of the storms yesterday and high winds this morning, it was pretty bad.  Instead, we followed the dotted purple line that arcs left and ends up in the same place.  It was an excellent time to try the alternate route because we were at high tide and up 8 feet from the low.  No problems and it was fun to follow a new course.

The next few hours the tides really pushed us along and we average 6.5-7 knots (or normal is about 5.5) all the way to Fernandina which is just over the Florida border.  We motored into Florida right at noon.  Winds were still over 15 as we navigated the shallows south.  I decided to stop early today because we couldn't make the next good anchorage before dark.  We anchored at 2:45pm in the South Amelia River about 45 miles north of St. Augustine - our destination tomorrow.

Throughout the day we checked the weather and it seems we are right on the edge of this cold front.  Only 50-100 miles south of us the temps are in the 70s while we never left the 50s.  But, 100 miles north of us the temps are in the 40s. Tomorrow it will be warm!

We are sitting in the salon with the heat running off our new Honda generator while writing this.  Laura baked bread today and is making Lasagna for dinner.  That should keep us warm.

Minim Creek to Stono River (Day 45) then Brunswick, GA (Day 46 & 47)

Sunday, November 10th (Day 45)

We both slept well in the calm anchorage.  I had the alarm set for 5:50am which would give us a little time to get the boat going by 6:15 - first light.  No problems as I completed my morning engine checks and we were underway as soon as I could see the channel markers.  As I was pulling the anchor, another sailboat motored by.  Someone else was up at this hour?

I used AquaMaps with the Army Corps of Engineer survery overlays throughout the day to stay in the deeper water.  This section has been dredged over the past few years and there was still a dredge running by McClellanville.  High tide was at 8am but there was still 4 feet of tide as we approached the typically bad section just south of McClellanville.  After passing the dredge and moving back to the center of the channel, the water depth was 12-16 feet all the way through.  Nice!

Here's what it looks like as you approach a dredge on the ICW.  Which way do I go?  Actually, I called the dredge on the marine radio and he gave me directions.

We saw several bald eagles in this area and Laura got this great shot with her Nikon.

Slow Cruisin' had passed us a little ways back so they led the way to Charleston.  Of course, they run 8.5 knots while we run a little less than 6 so they ended up more than 10 miles ahead by the end of the day.  And, they even stopped for fuel!

Not much wind to help us as we motored up this open area before Charleston.  Only problem was the Ben Sawyer Bridge was on it's weekend schedule - only opening on the hour.  When we were 10 miles or so away, my GPS said we would arrive at 1:20pm.  Bummer.  I slowed down to kill 40 minutes before the 2pm bridge opening.

Did you ever see white Pelicans?  Here is a group having a party next to the waterway,  They are cool!

After passing through the Ben Sawyer, it took a little over an hour through Charleston Harbor to the next bridge, Wappoo Creek.  I love the old houses on the Charleston waterfront.

We passed through the Wappoo Creek Bridge around 3:30pm and had the current with us through Elliot's Cut that pushed us to over 8 knots.  A few years ago we tried to go through here against the tide and I thought the houses on shore were going to pass us....

Slow Cruisin' had anchored in Church Creek but we couldn't make it that far before dark.  Instead we motored about 3 miles up the Stono River and anchored by the southern shore.  It was quiet and peaceful but a little chilly.  I'm still waiting for nice weather to eat dinner in the cockpit and watch the sunset.  Seems like it's been a long time...

Monday, November 11th (Day 46)

We slept in a little today waiting so we'd leave near high tide which would help us up the Stono River then down the North Edisto River.  Plans were to head off-shore from the North Edisto and sail overnight to somewhere near Florida.  Winds were supposed to be pretty calm so we'd probably be motoring the whole night.

There was a little fog this morning on the river and it was very calm.  The water was like glass.  Check out this reflection of the bridge we passed about 1/2 hour underway..

Because of the cold front coming through tomorrow night, we decided it was time to make some miles south and GET WARM!  During the day I called and cancelled our reservation for Lady's Island Marina in Beaufort and tried to make a reservation for a mooring in St. Augustine.  No mooring available so they put me on the waiting list.  Now we had to figure out where we were going to sit out the storm on Tuesday night.

As we motored down the North Edisto, the tidal current really picked up and the boat hit 9.8 knots.  We were zooming!  Out onto the ocean for about 5 miles before we could turn south and not be in shallow water.  There was a 1-2 foot swell that ended up just behind our beam (coming from just a little behind us) so we pulled out 3/4 of the mainsail and sheeted it in tight to stop the boat from rolling.

The day was sunny and nice as we motored southwest toward the GA / FL border.  I wanted to be on a mooring or in a marina for this storm so eventually decided to head into St. Simons Sound and Brunswick Landing Marina.  We'd stayed here many times in the past and it's very nice and protected.  I called them and made a reservation for Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

We could have made St. Augustine by the end of Monday but the winds were supposed to clock to the SW in the afternoon which would be right on the nose.  Plus, we didn't have a place to stay for the coming bad weather.

Just before sunset, a beautiful full moon rose in the eastern sky and kept playing peek-a-boo with us through the clouds.  It was a very colorful sunset over the Savannah River entrance.  See how calm the ocean was?  We are 10 miles off-shore here.

Laura hit the sack just after dinner and I planned on letting her sleep until about 1am.  Then she would take the watch until we entered the St. Simon's channel around 6am.

I had no problems on my watch and was even able to roll out the jib which helped our boat speed and also made the ride much calmer.  Now we were going too fast with the sails helping so I lowered the engine RPM to just off idle.  I tried without using the engine but not enough wind to keep us moving at even 4 knots.  Ok.  Low engine RPM was cheap on fuel and much less noise to sleep.

Tuesday, November 12th (Day 47)

Laura took over just before midnight.  I was pretty tired and slept almost all of the next 5 hours.  She woke me up when we were about 3 miles from the entrance channel so I could do the more difficult navigation.

Sometime during her watch, the moon came out from the clouds and she was able to get this picture with her Nikon.  Pretty amazing figuring she was standing on a moving boat.  Well.... the camera did some of the work too.  A great zoom lens and image stabilization help a lot.

I continued to slow down as the marina doesn't open until 8am.  We entered the river channel at 6am and slowly motored the 5 miles to land.  Sunrise was just before we entered the river proper.  Another pretty one but you've seen enough sunrise and sunset pictures, right?

On September 8th, the car carrier Golden Ray floundered and turned over on it's side in St. Simon's Sound.  The wreck is still there and the cleanup is in work.  It was an awesome sight coming in from the ocean to see this 660 foot freighter laying on it's side blocking a fair amount of the channel.  The investigation is still underway to determine why it turned over but crews are currently draining / transferring the 300,000 gallons of fuel from the vessel before they figure out how to get the gasoline out of the 4,200 vehicles still inside.

Crews have decided that it would be too risky to re float the ship so plans are to take her apart where she lays.  That should be interesting!

This is the bow of the ship as we were going by. 

Once past, I was able to get this picture of the crews working with holes cut through the bottom to drain the fuel and access the interior.

 

Once past the shipwreck, we slowly motored up the Brunswick River to the marina and arrived at 8:30am.  A short while later we were tied up and walking on land again.

We traveled 143 nautical miles in 24.5 hours from our anchorage on the Stono River.  If we had stayed on the ICW, it would have been 203 miles - probably 4 or 5 days.

Plans are to leave here Thursday and head south again.  Maybe St. Augustine will have room for us this time?

Myrte Beach to Minim Creek (Day 42, 43 & 44)

Thursday, November 7th (Day 42)

Not much going on today on Second Wind as we stayed at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club for another 2 days to sit out the storms tonight and tomorrow.

Sandy came by to pick up Laura for their "girls day out" and I think they both enjoyed it a lot.  Sandy's husband (and our friend) John passed away 2 years ago and she is now living alone in Myrtle Beach.  I'm sure she was happy for Laura's company and Laura has only had me to talk with for several days so she needed a break too.

I caught up on some finances and my favorite Internet sites.  My plans to change the oil and other maintenance never came about but, oh well....  tomorrow is another day.

Lee and Linda on Slow Cruisin' came into the marina around 2pm and tied up across the fairway from us.  I went over around 3:30pm to say hello and we decided it was cocktail time a short while later.  Laura came back with lots of groceries around 5pm so I helped her truck them down to the boat and put stuff away.  We then walked back to Slow Cruisin' for dinner.  Lee and I grilled pork loins on the marina grill.  Laura made mashed cauliflower plus we had some of her homemade applesauce.  It was a fun night since we hadn't seen Lee and Linda since Haverstraw Bay 5 weeks ago.

Friday, November 8th, (Day 43 - start of week 7)

Today was maintenance-day.  I started by filling the salt container on our waste treatment system.  Then I started our main engine to warm it up for the oil change.  While the engine was warming up, I unpacked our hose and filled our water tank.  It was pretty low and I put in about 150 gallons which brought it to 7/8s.  We have plans to stay in Beaufort in just 3 days so no reason to carry full tanks.

After the warm-up, I drained the engine oil into a 3 gallon container (the engine holds 2.5 gallons of oil).  Then I brought in the water hose and Laura put on her "bilge monkey" hat and climbed into the bilge.  We had gotten a little oil in the bilge which was making things a little smelly.  After cleaning out all the oil we could, we used the hose to flush / clean the bilge.  Of course our bilge pump stopped working so we also had to fix that (it had gotten clogged from all our flushing).

I then changed the engine oil filter and drained / filled the transmission oil.  After filling the engine oil, I started the engine and let the oil circulate while looking for any new leaks.  No problems so onto the next job.

Our new Honda 2200 gas generator was close to the 20 hour break-in so I started it and plugged in Laura's hair dryer on high to put it under load.  This generator is the easiest engine to change the oil....  After shutting off, I picked it up and put it on one of our back boxes.  I had a plastic quart container which I put under the oil drain then tilted the generator to let all the oil out.  After it was drained, I filled it back up with new oil using a funnel through the same hole.  The whole process took about 10 minutes and now it was good for another 100 hours.

We both relaxed the rest of the day and I took an hour nap in the afternoon.  Linda had made dinner reservations for us and several of their friends that live in Myrtle Beach at the marina restaurant called the Officers Club.  We all met up there around 6pm for cocktails and a very nice dinner.

Here are the 5 couples at the Officer's Club, Myrtle Beach Yacht Club -

Saturday, November 9th (Day 44)

A major problem for boats traveling south is the ICW near McClellanville - about 40 miles north of Charleston.  This area has been a problem for boats over the past 6 or 7 years because it has become shallower and shallower from currents bringing in silt and sand.  Now, there is barely 4 feet at low tide so we typically go around by taking the ocean from WinYah Bay to Charleston Harbor.  The seas were going to be high tomorrow so we wanted to take the ICW this trip.  The high tide is around 7am with low tide around 1pm tomorrow (Sunday).  So, we wanted to get as close as possible today to take advantage of the higher tide in the early morning.

I had the alarm set for 6am figuring we would need about 30-45 minutes to get the boat ready and leave the slip.  The temperature was 38 degrees as we got the boat ready.  I dug out my long-jons, winter coat and gloves. There were no problems and we pulled out of the marina at 6:40am.  We had about 1 knot of current helping us through Myrtle Beach and the three bridges that have to open for us during the first 20 miles.  Everything went fine and we pulled into Osprey Marina for fuel around 10am.  61 gallons for the 370 miles from Norfolk.  Nice!

We entered the upper Waccamaw just after high tide.  We slowed a little than picked up the ebb current on the river all the way down to Georgetown, SC.  Slow Cruisin' left about 1.5 hours after us and passed us on the river.  Here they are coming up on us -

It was a beautiful but chilly day and we made great time.

We were both upset with the cold weather coming this far south and next week was supposed to be even worse.  While motoring through Myrtle Beach, we talked about what we were going to do for the next 3 weeks.  We had reservations at New Smyrna Beach for the month of December figuring we would rent a car for the month and drive back to NY for the holidays.  But, we were way ahead of schedule.  We talked about maybe St. Marys, GA for Thanksgiving which we've really enjoyed in the past.  Only problem is that's only about a week from here and we have almost 3 weeks until Thanksgiving.  We could stay at a few places we like (Beaufort, SC?) but the moorings there are in lots of current and the marinas are expensive unless you stay for a month or more.  Plus, we get bored with staying more than a couple days in places since we don't have a car.

I broached the idea of maybe we keep going and stay in Marathon for the month of December.  We had 3 weeks (or more) and could easily make the Florida Keys by the first week in December.  Laura and I decided to talk and think about it while we were traveling.

Here are the other parts of our thought process for deciding on Marathon versus New Smyrna for December -

- We like to travel.  Bruce Van Sant (a boating author we like) would call us Globe Trotters.  We don't typically stay many days in places sightseeing and visiting museums, etc. but would rather keep moving and see the countryside going by.

- The next 3 days are going to be very calm on the southeast coast.  It would be easy to jump off-shore for an overnight and be in St. Augustine on Tuesday.

- Temps in this area next week are going to be 50s and 30s for several days.  In St. Augustine, it will be 70s and 50s.

Finally, we decided to call Burdines Marina in Marathon to see if they even had a slip available for us.  Yes!  They did and we could come in anytime the first week or two in December.

So...  big change of plans for us.  We are going to work our way south tomorrow and Monday then jump off-shore Monday or Tuesday night for St. Augustine.  We'll spend the next 3-4 weeks working our way down the coast of Florida and tentatively arrive in Marathon on December 10th.  That will give us plenty of time to spend a few days in our favorite places like St. Augustine, Stuart and Key Biscayne.

We made 61 nautical miles today on the ICW which is very good for us.  Slow Crusin' and Second Wind are anchored next to each other in Minim Creek about 45 miles from Charleston.   Here was the sunset tonight that Laura took with her Nikon.  It's very pretty here especially since the cold has driven away all the bugs.

Tomorrow we should past Charleston then Beaufort area on Monday.  I'll keep you posted!

Carolina Beach, NC to Myrtle Beach, SC (Day 40 & 41)

Tuesday, November 5th (Day 40)

Our mooring at Carolina Beach was paid for two days so we could spend a day around town and work on a few boat projects.  The morning was nice so we decided to put the second coat on our cockpit combing which we were refinishing.

On our way back from South America 12 years ago, we stopped in the Abacos, Bahamas for a couple weeks.  There was a very nice stretch of weather coming so we decided to strip and refinish (varnish) our cockpit combing.  We stripped, sanded, primed and applied 5 coats of varnish over 4 days at anchor.  Over the years, we have sanded and applied new coats of varnish to keep it looking decent but now the varnish was de-laminating and needed full replacement.

This time, instead of varnish, we were going to use Awlgrip Awlwood.  We had used this to coat our new bow pulpit 2 years ago and had enough left to refinish the combing (we hoped).  The Awlwood is a much harder and weather resistant finish which is supposed to last 10 years without any touch-up.  After 2 years on the bow pulpit, it still looks like new.  The only downside is the cost and amount of work to apply.  To coat our 2' X 4' bow pulpit, the primer, clear coat and cleaner was $600.  Yikes!  Plus, it dries so hard we have to use a power sander between coats to even out the surface.

Since this was only the second coat of the clear finish, we only lightly sanded with 220 grit then I painted on the clear finish while Laura followed with a tip-brush.  It only took us about 15 minutes to finish this coat and it looked pretty good.  Now that we have two coats on the teak and have built up the surface a bit, I will probably power-sand with 180-300 grit before the next coat.  I'll post some updated pictures when it looks a little better.

We saw that clouds coming in so packed our wet-gear and took the dinghy into town.  Looking for a place to eat lunch, we decided to try Pop's Diner.  I thought the "Diner" would mean I could get a nice salad but as the waitress told me, "We don't serve healthy food here..."  Instead I ordered their special - Filet Mignon Tacos.  We also shared their lobster bisque which was awesome.

It was raining when we left the diner so, instead of taking a walk to settle the lunch, we headed straight for the Celtic Creamery for ice cream.  They make their own ice cream and, when we were here in April, I had the best ice cream cone I ever had.  It was rich chocolate with brownies, hard chocolate bits and a few other things.  I was really looking forward to having it again!  But, it was not to be.  Since they make their own ice cream, the Creamery changes flavors to suit the calendar.  This time they had flavors based on Halloween and Thanksgiving.  There was a chocolate ice cream with other stuff but it wasn't as good as my April cone.  Bummer.

But, it wasn't a complete loss.  What we had was very good.  When talking to the gent serving the ice cream, I noticed they had "hot donuts".  I asked to see what they looked like and he said they were made to order.  There was a mechanized deep-fryer on the counter which he turned on and hit the handle twice for two donuts.  We watched as the donuts slowly cooked then flipped over before dropping into a bowl with cinnamon-sugar.  Ok.  Last time here I had the best ice cream I ever had.  This time I had the best donuts I every had.  They were warm, sweet and melted in your mouth.

I forgot to take a picture of making the donuts or what they looked like after they were made.  My excuse was being mesmerized by the whole process.  Here is a picture of the donut machine.

The Creamery also sold lots of what I would call "travel nick-nacks".  My favorite was a towel that said, "A wife was sitting with her husband drinking wine.  She said, 'I love you'.  The husband asked, 'Is that you talking or the wine'.  The wife answered, 'That's me talking to the wine...'

It was still raining when we left the creamery so we walked back to the dinghy for a wet ride back to the boat.  On the way, we spotted this pontoon boat that I thought would have been a great business to run.  It was a "Pedal Pub" where you sat at a bar (drinking?) and pedaling.  The pedals are connected to a paddle-steamer type drum on the stern which moves the boat.  You get a little exercise and scenery while having an evening cocktail.  Nice idea?  I also noticed there was a small outboard partially hidden on the stern so you were sure to get back to the dock even if people stopped pedaling.

The rain stopped shortly after we got back to the boat and took off our wet clothes.  We spent a quiet evening watching the British Baking Show which I had downloaded to my iPad the last time we had wi-fi.

Wednesday, November 6th (Day 41)

Another travel day on Second Wind but we only had about 50 miles to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club where we had reservations for 3 nights.  From Carolina Beach we motored through Snow's Cut to the Cape Fear River.  The river currents can be 2-3 knots so we always time our trip to the current running in our direction.  Today it would be on the ebb (toward the ocean) for the whole morning so I wasn't in a big hurry.

We slipped the mooring lines just after 8am and motored toward the Cape Fear River.  Winds were a little calmer than predicted but I figured it was just because there were houses and big resorts around us.  As we motored onto the main river channel, the winds picked up from behind us and we were able to roll out our sails and shut down the engine for a quiet ride.

Now we had a choice of taking the ICW from Southport to Myrtle Beach or going out onto the ocean for a 25-mile run which would by-pass Shallotte and Lockwoods Folly inlets which are usually problem areas on the ICW.  I checked several weather sites on my phone and they all said the ocean would be a bit rough (3-4 foot, short period seas).  But, the winds would be from the shore which should mean the waves would be a lot less if we stayed close to land (1-2 miles).  Also, the tides were in our favor and would push us out the Cape Fear River then change and pull us in Little River inlet.  We decided to go for it and rigged the boat for some off-shore sailing.

The sail out of the Cape Fear River was quite nice.  We had to sail about 3 miles off-shore before we could turn toward the coast because of shallow waters.  It was a little rough there but I gradually worked the boat back to 1 mile from shore where we had a great ride for a few hours.

Here is your sailing lesson for today -

Our course was almost due west and the NE winds meant we were on a broad-reach (winds coming from our starboard-stern).  Gradually, the winds clocked from NE to E which meant we had to turn the boat toward shore to keep the sails working.  If we turned the boat directly down-wind, the mainsail would block the jib and the boat would slow down quite a bit.  The boat was running around 7 knots with the wind at less then 130 degrees from our bow and both sails working hard.

15 miles into our off-shore sail, the winds clocked far enough east that we would run into shore if we kept going on the broad-reach.  I decided to jibe the boat (turn the stern through the wind) which would put our course away from shore but also slightly away from our destination.  After 30-45 minutes, we could jibe back to the starboard tack and sail to Little River Inlet.

Take a look at the picture from our chart-plotter below.  Cape Fear River is on the right while the Little River Inlet is middle-left.  The yellow track was from sailing here last Spring.  The purple track was today.  Notice the purple track comes down the Cape Fear River then into the ocean.  We turn toward shore to cut down on the waves generated by the wind coming from shore then gradually get closer and closer to shore as we try to keep sailing.  You can see we jibe to turn south (toward the bottom of the picture) then jibe again to the west when we are just passed the yellow line.  Now we can make Little River under sail.

One problem was when we jibed to go farther off-shore, we found the 3-4 foot, short seas that were predicted for this area.  The ride became rougher but still wasn't too bad.  These seas stayed with for the next hour until we entered Little River Inlet.  All in all we sailed almost 30 miles and averaged 7 knots while the rest of the boats heading south motored down the ICW doing the dance with every faster powerboat passing all the sailboats.

Here is a picture I took of our sail.  I also posted a nice YouTube video that I took with our GoPro while off-shore.  You can check it out HERE

After coming in Little River, it was a fairly quick ride to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club.  We tied up at 4:30pm and our friend Sandy came to pick us up at 5pm.  She took us to West Marine (I had a short list that was over $180) then a nice spaghetti dinner at her house.  We also brought our laundry which Laura took care of during the evening.

Back to the boat around 10:30pm and we hit the sack right away.  Another great day on Second Wind!

Tomorrow, Laura and Sandy are going to have a "Ladies Day Out" and I have several boat projects to work including changing the engine oil / filter and the oil in our new generator.  Lee and Linda on Slow Cruisin' will also be here tomorrow afternoon so we are looking forward to a nice reunion with them.  Last we saw them was 5 weeks ago in Haverstraw Cove north of New York City.

Cedar Creek to Swansboro (Day 37 and 38), Swansboro to Carolina Beach (Day 39)

Saturday, November 2nd (Day 37)

Off the hook at 8:30am for a 50(ish) mile run to Swansboro.  There were two other sailboats anchored near us last night but both had left earlier. 

We motored out of Cedar Creek back onto the ICW and turned south toward Morehead City and Beaufort.  It's tough to figure out the currents in Adam's Creek because the upper section has no tides other than wind-driven water levels.  For example, if there was a south wind for many days, it would lower the water level by Oriental as much as 18 inches.  Then, even a low tide at the ocean end of Adam's Creek wouldn't cause southbound currents.

But, we had a north wind for the last 2 days which raised the water at Oriental.  Plus, low tide at Morehead City was a few hours ago so we had almost 2 knots of current helping us down Adam's Creek.  It was a quick trip at 7.4 knots.

At the lower end of Adam's Creek we approached the Newport River and the waterway opened up.  We ran out the jib so the NE wind would help us against the flood tide current from here to Morehead City.  Winds helped us all day as we turned west at Morehead and continued down Bogue Sound.  It was never quite enough help to turn off the engine and we wanted to get into Swansboro early to spend time with my cousin Tim.  Sailing into Morehead City -

The day was uneventful (always a good thing on the water) and we tied up in Swansboro at the Church Street City Dock at 2:30pm.  After tying up and putting the boat to bed, Tim drove over to pick us up a short time later.  We planned a nice dinner at his house with his friends Mike and Jen.

We stopped at Lowes Foods (No.  Not the hardware store) and picked up St. Louis ribs and chicken parts to BBQ for dinner.  After arriving at Chalet de la Mer (what Tim and Karen named their house), we covered the ribs with foil and put them in the oven at 300 degrees to soften up.  We also pre-cooked the chicken in the oven for about 45 minutes on an open pan.

Tim and Karen bought this house 2 years ago as their retirement home.  It has already survived 2 direct hits from hurricanes and we love it.  The walk to the beautiful ocean beach is only 8 minutes.  They have been renting it out but stopped last month so Tim could come down and prepare the house as their permanent home next Spring.  Karen is still working in Upstate NY so she wasn't able to party with us.  Next time Karen!

Mike and Jen drove over from their house near Morehead City and we had a great time with good friends and lots of wine.  Around 6pm we pulled the meat out of the oven and started the charcoal BBQ grill.  The gals made potato salad, baked beans and cauliflower with broccoli.  It was a full grill with all the ribs and chicken -

Dinner was excellent except that I ate and drank way too much.  Here we all are after dinner.  Does it look like we were having a good time?

It was good that we had planned on staying over for the night as we crashed around 11pm in their "Guest Bedroom".  Tim had really changed the place since we were here in April and it was very cozy.

Sunday, November 3rd (Day 38)

It was a quiet morning at Chalet de la Mer as we were all a little hung over from last night.  Laura was up before me and walked to the beach to search for shells and sea-glass (that nobody finds around here).  Except, she did find one nice piece of sea-glass and took this picture of the beautiful ocean morning.

We ate leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch then Tim drove us back to Second Wind.  Laura and I both napped (a few times?) and basically took it easy during the day.  Around 8pm I talked her into taking a walk around Swansboro to loosen up a little.  It was a cool but pretty night as we walked around town for about 1/2 hour.

I hit the sack at 10pm before Laura reminded me that I hadn't changed the clocks for the end of daylight savings time.  It was really only 9pm.  Oh well, I read awhile then fell right to sleep.

Monday, November 4th (Day 39)

We had over 60 miles today in order to make Carolina Beach where I had made mooring reservations for today and tomorrow.  I had the alarm set for 5:30am (I had changed all the clocks now) and actually woke up at 5am on my own.  I decided to download the latest charts for the next couple weeks to my iPad so spent a few minutes doing that.

I run a navigation program called AquaMaps on my iPad.  The app costs $9.99 a year and is well worth it.  For that price, I can download all the latest U.S charts PLUS all of the Army Corps of Engineer (ACE) survey data.  The ACE contracts marine surveyors to take very detailed depth soundings of areas that frequently shoal so they know where to schedule dredging.  Plus, they publish this data on-line which can be used as an overlay on AquaMaps to show very accurate depths. 

The results of using the ACE survey data are quite remarkable.  Here are two charts of the inlet to the Carolina Beach anchorage / mooring field.  Notice in the left picture it just says "shoaling" by the ActiveCaptain hazzard marker.  The picture on the right includes the ACE data and shows just how shallow the corner is.  I also like the fact that it color-codes the depths so you know where to be really careful.

We left the dock in Swansboro at 6am - just as it was light enough to see the channel markers.  A short while later, I took this colorful picture of the eastern sky just before sunrise.

There are three bridges along this route that all operate on opening schedules.  The first bridge is Onslow Beach which I was hoping to make at 7:30am so we could get to Carolina Beach a little early. 

From experience the past few years, this swing bridge is one of the slowest to open on the whole ICW and frequently takes 7-10 minutes to open far enough for us to get through.  As we approached the Onslow Beach bridge, I called the bridge operator on the marine radio and told him my arrival time from our GPS was 7:34am and I would be there by time the bridge opened.  He said I would have to wait until 8am.  I asked, "Why. Since the bridge takes so long to open?"  He told me his orders were to not open the bridge unless there was a boat waiting at the bridge.  My assumption was there were boaters in the past who said they would be there for the opening but they had to wait for them and the bridge was open a long time closed to road traffic.  Anyway, we slowed way down and went through the bridge at 8:06am.

After the Onslow Beach bridge, there is a very tricky passage through the New River inlet.  It is usually one of the most challenging parts of the ICW because it constantly changes with the currents moving the sand around the bottom.  No problems this time as we motored through the deeper water identified by the ACE surveys.

On the south side of New River, this is this pink house we always like.

The next bridge was Surf City.  It had been replaced by a high bridge that we could get under with our 61 foot mast.  Nice!

After that, we had the Figure 8 Island bridge and the Wrightville Beach bridge.  Here's the problem when heading south...  The Figure 8 opens on the hour and 1/2 hour but the Wrightville Beach bridge only opens on the hour.  They are 5 miles apart.  If we go though the Figure 8 bridge on the 1/2 hour, we can't make the Wrightville Beach bridge in 30 minutes so have to wait 1 1/2 hours for the next on-hour opening.

Turns out we were 10 minutes late for the on-hour Figure 8 bridge so went through on the 1/2 hour.  We now had 1 1/2 hours to go 5 miles.  (See what that 4 minutes late at Onslow Beach bridge is costing us?)  It wasn't a big loss because there was about 10 knots of wind behind us so we rolled out 1/2 of our jib and turned the engine off for over an hour.  The boat stayed at 3-4 knots as we quietly sailed down this short section of the ICW.  When we were about 2 miles from the Wrightville Beach bridge, I pulled in all of the jib because we were going to fast and would be there early.  The boat continued at 2.5 - 3 knots WITH NO SAILS.  It was pretty cool and the first time in 80,000 miles we've done this.  It just worked out that the wind was right on our stern so just blew us fast enough down the ICW to keep steerage.  It was cool!

After Wrightsville Beach we motor-sailed the last 10 miles to Carolina Beach and tied to a mooring I had reserved yesterday.  We'll be here for two days to relax a bit and dinghy into one of our favorite towns.

I poured a short glass of Tequila, got out my guitar and played several songs in the cockpit with Laura singing nice harmony.  I haven't been playing the guitar often enough to build up calluses on my left hand fingers so am working on playing almost every day.  I can now play 8-10 songs before my fingers get too sore.

We grilled porkchops on the BBQ for dinner and spent a quiet evening watching last few episodes of Jack Ryan - second season.  Not as good as the first season but still entertaining.

Had the fan blowing in the bedroom as it was a warm evening in the mid-70s.  Very comfortable and we both slept well in the quiet Carolina Beach bay.  Tomorrow we plan on taking the dinghy into town and maybe to the beach.  We'll have to dinghy around the afternoon thunderstorms.