The Keys and the African Queen

Sitting in the cockpit at sundown in the Keys is one of the most relaxing experiences. The air feels like silk on skin. I watched a ketch sail across our horizon a couple of miles to our SW. As it crossed the sun's decending path I couldn't get the song "Wooden Ships" by CS & N out of my head. An old and somewhat depressing lyrics but a nice melody. We are certainly not depressed. How could anyone be other than joyous at this view........and I forgot to take a photo. We've been getting lazy lately and not taking many pictures. We'll have to do better. It took the ketch the better part of an hour to pass through an arc of about 20 degrees on the horizon before it vanished behind one of the smaller unnamed keys. Three nights were not enough of the Keys so we will be coming back again soon for a longer visit. Two nights ago we anchored in the Little Shark River. It's part of the Everglades and a very remote and wild place. Lots of animal life all around us as we sailed to an anchorage an hour before sunset. It was feeding time in the jungle. At sunset the animal life changed from birds, fish and turtles to no-see-ums. Diane and I quickly dove into the boat and put in all the screens. We felt like Charles and Rosie in the movie African Queen. We promised ourselves air conditioning next night so we made a long and fast dash to Naples. We've decided to stay a second night and enjoy the wonderous invention of Willis Carrier a little longer. We are sort of on the home stretch. The waters north of us are familiar to us and we've sailed them from time to time over the years. We plan to linger a little in some spots we have visited in the past but were never able to stay long enough because of work committments. I'll close this with a link to the MAP. We are going to walk to the Naples pier and watch the sunset from shore; something we've done many times in the past with our children when they were small and with my parents when dad was alive and mom was in better health. It will be a moment of very mixed emotions.

Jensen Bch to Miami

We've been slowly hopping down the ICW this past week gawking at the huge houses and yachts along the South Florida waterfront. We've spent nights at anchor or in marinas and met Canadian and American boats on their way to the Keys or Bahamas for the winter. One boat we shared an anchorage with on two different occasions is from Holland. Tonight will be our second night in this Biscayne Bay anchorage. To our north a couple of miles is the beautiful Miami skyline. We are sitting here waiting for a tropical wave to meet a weak cold front moving down from North FL. The collision is bringing lots of clouds, some rain and thankfully light and variable winds. This weather train wreck should clear out tomorrow, so we will be off to the Keys. We are thinking of spending 2-4 nights at anchor at various spots in the Keys before making the turn north toward Tampa. We may be out of cell phone and internet coverage for a few days beginning about mid-week since the area between the Keys and Marco Island (s. of Naples) is either Gulf water or the Everglades. Not many cell phone towers there. This week will mark the 4,000 nautical mile mark for our travels. We will probably pour some white wine (small amount) over the bow of Sea Breeze to celebrate the occasion. In looking at theMAP you can see how close the Bahamas are to us today. With a few little enhancements to Sea Breeze, we hope to be back here in Biscayne Bay sometime within the next 12 months waiting for a good weather window to cross the Gulf Stream for a visit there.

Photo 1 - entering Port of Miami with the city in the background

Photo 2 - Ft. Lauderdale from the ICW

Photo 3 - Miami Beach from offshore

Jacksonville to Jensen Beach

After leaving Jacksonville if felt like we sailed (motored actually) into a sauna. Early October seemed more like early August. We broke from our usual routine of anchoring out each night. We motored through windless molasses with our electrical umbilical cord reaching out for the next marina so we could plug in and dive below into the comfort of a cabin being cooled and dehumidified by our new best friend – the air conditioner. All of Sea Breeze’s electrical needs are provided by battery power except the AC, so when the crew wants to sleep in cool comfort, we head for marinas……preferably marinas with swimming pools attached. St. Augustine provided an interesting one night stop. Long ago it was our frequent weekend destination when we were young and living in Fernandina Beach. We remembered bicycling through deserted streets one Christmas day when we woke to discover our early morning flights to visit family up north had been cancelled. Next day after St. Augustine we discovered a little gem of a hotel built in the 1880’s. Located in New Smyrna Beach, it met all our requirements – shore power for the boat and its AC unit, a pool, and 5 short blocks from the beach. The Riverview Hotel and Marina could accommodate one boat (us). It is a beautiful pink hotel with white trim, 3 stories, and a big wrap around front porch with rocking chairs. All this peeking out from under a huge ancient live oak tree. Hidden in back a walled subtropical garden was our main reason for stopping here………the pool. We giggled as we swam in this secret place that few seemed to know existed. The beach was a short 5 blocks away with shops lining both sides of the street. The shops were mostly tourist traps – tee shirt shops, shell shops, a couple of beach funky bars selling cheap domestic’s – 5 for $10. And yes, count’em – 3 ice cream shops! We’ve also spent nights in the Melbourne area, meeting friends for dinner out, and in north Ft. Pierce. Last night we anchored at Jensen Beach and waited for the approaching cold front to wash over us. This morning we woke to temps in the 70’s. Glorious. A break from the record setting heat. Somehow I can just feel the sympathy from those of you who are experiencing frost or even snow right now. We are going to stay at anchor here for a day or two and take advantage of the cooler weather to do some much needed cosmetic maintenance. First on the list is to clean the “mustache” from the hull. Most of the ICW waterway from Norfolk to Ft. Pierce contains some level of tea colored water which leaves a stain along the water line. Now that we are back in clear water again it’s time to get out the cleaning tools. We should be in the Miami area in 3-4 days and the Keys by next weekend. Then we turn the corner and start north toward home. Our internet service is not the greatest or fastest here in Jensen Beach so I’m not going to try to download any photos today. I did update the MAP so you can see where we are and where we’ve been lately.

Jacksonville

We spent the past week at a beautiful marina on the Ortega River and visited Mark, Christi and grandson Owen. A nice break from the boat and a chance to catch up on some boat maintenance (oil change, fuel filter change, etc). Now it's on to St. Augustine, Daytona and points south. The map traces our progress since leaving NC.

Photo 1 - Diane and Owen fishing on Sea Breeze

Photo 2 - Mark, Christi & Owen out day sailing on the St. Johns River

Beaufort, SC to Jacksonville, FL

After leaving Beaufort, SC we spent 3 lovely nights at anchorages in the New River (behind Hilton Head Is.), Rosebird Cr. (south of Savannah), and the North River before spending a suprisingly great night at Brunswick, GA's town marina. We found an absolutely wonderful restaurant called the 4th of May Cafe - I had tomato pie, butter beans and pot roast with melt-in-your-mouth Vidallia Onions. I haven't had butter beans since the 70's. A good cook can make them taste wonderful, a bad cook can make them taste like glue. This was a very good cook. Tomato Pie is cooked chopped fresh tomatos and onions with Parmesan Cheese baked with a topping of bread crumbs. Oh man, the tomatos were grown in heaven. Diane's fresh caught grouper was melt in your mouth great. This is quite a change from my emails from Georgia last year. In 2008 I was talking about the great salt marshes with isolated anchorages and now I'm talking about Tomato Pie. After leaving Brunswick we spent two nights at anchor off Cumberland Island GA. This is my favorite place without question. Again we were the only two people on the 20 mile beach. Diane found her usual treasures - shells and starfish. No sharks teeth or sand dollars this time. We did see a ghost crab (photo) and lots of holes where they hide during the day. I don't think we have ever seen a live one before this. Lots of gulls and plovers on the beach. Shrimp boats offshore. Robin egg blue sky. Sounds of surf breaking on the beach. We continue to meet such interesting people along our way. This week we have met two boats from California. One of them captained by a guy who brought his trawler alone from the Panama Canal to Cumberland Island. His wife left him in Panama after making the trip from California to the PC. That's a whole lot of miles alone at sea, day and night on autopilot. A very lucky guy - not because is wife left him, but because he didn't hit anything in the dark. We also met a couple - he from Australia, she from China with a 3 year old daughter who were visiting the US by yacht. Nice yacht - 50+' with every toy you could imagine. Need to take a nap, no problem, set the autopilot and radar ship proximity alarm and get some zzzzzzz's. Now we are in Jacksonville, FL at a very nice condo/marina that was once a very nice boat yard. Gone is the travel lift, engine shop, paint shop. Now it's the 5 story condo with swimming pool. Much nicer to swim in the pool but I miss the boat yard atmosphere sometimes. I walked the docks tonight and found about 1/3 of the boats here hail from ports north of New York. Not a bad life - winter here in FL on the boat and spend summer at home in New England. We will spend the next few days here in the Ortega River doing boat maintenance, playing car shuffle, and spoiling our grandson while enjoying the hospitality of Mark & Christi and visiting BJ my fraternity brother from (Gawd forbid) the 60's. Here's the map of our latest travels.

Photos

1 - Grayfield Inn Cumberland Island

2 - Ghost Crab Cumberland Island

3 - Sailing under a rainbow - really

4 - Our tax dollars at work - nucular sub at Kings Bay GA

5 - North shore of Cumberland Island view from Jekyll Inlet

Georgetown, SC - Charleston, SC - Beaufort, SC

After leaving Georgetown, we travelled down the ICW surrounded by marsh grass (cordgrass I'm told is the correct name) to find a bridge stuck in the closed position just north of Charleston. So we could not go to the Charleston marina where we planned to meet our family for the weekend. Bummer. Plan B quickly surfaced and we found a nice marina in suburban Charleston on our side of the broken bridge where we could stay Friday through Sunday morning. We spent the weekend visiting "the kids"; to us that means Dana & Steve; Mark, Christi and Owen. Photo above. They had to drive a little further to our "new" marina, but it was closer to the beach so some benefits could be claimed. Steve found great restaurants. After 2 days of eating at places he recommended for lunch, dinner & breakfast, Diane and I had celery and crackers for dinner Sunday night. We still have distended stomachs. To much good food but a good job by Steve as tour guide. After leaving Isle of Palms we crossed Charleston Harbor in a strong easterly against an ebb tide that threw up a sea of white caps sparkling in the afternoon sun. After an exciting transit of Elliot Cut where we only made 2.0 knots headway against a 3.5 knot current Diane found a great anchorage for the night. The past 2 days have been a motoring trip through creeks, rivers and land cuts as we proceed southward. Since leaving Charleston, we have travelled up the Stono River, through a land cut then down the North River, up the Dawho River, through North Creek and the Watts Cut into the South Edisto River upstream to the Fenwick Cut into the Ashepoo River upstream then through the Ashepoo-Coosaw Cut into the Coosaw River upstream to Brickyard Creek downstream into the Beaufort River to..........where else....Beaufort. Actually Port Royal Marina just next door to Beaufort. Each of these creeks, rivers and cuts has a scenic personality of its own; much like the personality and techniques of commercial fishermen we see along the way. Some fish for crab with trot lines, others with wire baskets (crab pots) on lines with floats to mark their location. Some shrimp boats are 80' long vessels with large crews fishing the rivers as they go ocean bound, others are converted 18' runabouts with crews of one that fish the creeks and sloughs. We saw two bald eagles yesterday. Last night we were anchored in one of the most beautiful spots of our whole trip. Photo above. Can you just imagine sitting in one of those two white lawn chairs overlooking the marsh, live oak trees, water and sunset? We saw our first live oak trees with spanish moss just below Charleston. Gone are the tall pines and cypress for now. Tonight in Beaufort we borrowed a marina pick up truck and ran to the grocery store to restock with fresh veggies for the next few days. It feels like we are close to home even though we still have over 700 miles to go. The trip home is rushing by too fast. We plan to slow down once we get to FL. We've kind of rushed the trip home so far due to concern about being caught on the coast with a tropical depression or hurricane approaching. Our new most favorite phrase is from the NOAA weather reports and National Hurricane Center saying "tropical storm development is not likely in the next 48 hours". We have been very lucky so far this summer and hope we continue the same good fortune for the remaining few weeks of hurricane season. We hope to be in Jacksonville in about a week. Then it's time for car shuffle, errands, boat maintenance and a chance to spend some time with Mark, Christi & Owen....maybe even catch a football game on TV and visit with their friends (that we consider our friends too). Isn't it nice to be friends with you childrens' friends? Then, after we've caught our breath, it will be off toward Miami, the Keys and up the Gulf coast. The map link shows our progress since leaving the Outer Banks of NC.

Spooners Cr. to Georgetown, SC

This section of the ICW is the most varied. We passed through part of Camp LaJune and waited for the marines to stop shooting at targets along the waterway. From the condition of the targets we say, our guys need more practice. At Myrtle Beach we stayed in a very nice resort marina that had on site restaurants and a shuttle to the beach so Diane could collect more shark's teeth and shells. The past two nights have been spent at anchor in secluded creeks along the Waccamaw River. If you look at the map you will notice some of the creeks we explored on the 14th and 15th. In the evenings the only sounds came from birds and other wildlife. Not a human sound. At night we sat on deck trying to identify stars and planets. We have seen lots of birds along this section of the ICW; another eagle (either immature bald or golden, not sure which), gators, turtles plus the usual pelicans and gulls. Also a flock of wood storks. Three of the four photos are of the shoreline at our Waccamaw anchorages. In the forth, Diane is scouting for birds and alligators.