The trip from Memory Rock to Mangrove Cay to Sale Cay and onto Green Turtle Cay was uneventful, very little to look at but I did managed to get some sailing in finally. Green Turtle Cay was where I cleared customs and spent 5 days on a mooring in Black Sound. Green Turtle Cay was a pleasant surprise, it had all the characteristics of a small Bahamas town. The people where very friendly and easy to talk to. The picture on my previous blog was actually taken in New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay. I departed for Marsh Harbour on Dec. 17th. I was quite nervous as I had to go "outside" around Whale Cay which has a bad reputation. It was a little rough but quite managable.
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Hope you can keep it up to date as we enjoy follwing your progress.
See you in March
Moving right along, my next destination was Hobi Sound on Jan. 6th where I anchored over night before going on to West Palm Beach. I fueled up in West Palm Beach, purchased charts, and made another expensive stop at West Marine. The north end of Lake Worth has a very nice anchorage however I didn't stay as I wanted to be near the outlet for my departure to Memory Rock in the Bahamas.
I moved over to an anchorage at Peanut Island and waited for the weather to be favorable for the crossing. The wind eased and turned to the S.E. so Jan. 10th at 1:30AM I left Florida for the Bahamas. I had an easy crossing and arrived at Mangrove Cay just as it was getting dark and anchored for the night.
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The day after Nelson left for Vancouver I started down the ICW myself destination Daytona Beach. From Daytona Beach I carried on to Cape Canaveral and anchored at the Nasa Causeway on Dec. 22. I had a short trip the next day to Melbourne Fl. where I stopped 2 nites in a Marina and visited Pat and Heather White. Dec. 25th, Chrismas Day, I motored down to Vero Beach an tied to a mooring. Vero Beach is a great location, I stayed almost 2 weeks and enjoyed it very much. For many cruisers Vero Beach is thier winter destination.
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Well I will try to get my blog caught up finally. Nelson Crowhurst and myself left Point Lookout Marina on Nov. 25th 2011 destination Bermuda. We motored all day and arrived in Norfork Va. around 2AM the next day. Stayed in Norfork until the 28th and then on through the Great Dismal Swamp on our way to Moorehead City. We got to Moorehead City on Dec. 1st and enjoyed the brief time we had there. Plans changed, we got advice that Bermuda would not be the most prudent destination at this time of year so we sailed down to Charleston. From Charleston we again went of shore to Jacksonville FL. and arrived in St. Augustine on Dec. 10th. The auto-helm was not working properly so we took a mooring ball in St. Augustine. Nelson had to get back to work so he left the 20th for Vancouver. Hopefully Nelson had a good time and the trip was memorable for hime.
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12/17/2011
I'm just going through my log now to finish off my blog covering the trip north. We arrived in Elizabeth City on Aug. 2nd the temp. was 94 F. so we spent some time in the interesting Museum and enjoyed the A/C in there. The Elizabeth docks are free but have no power or internet. One of the local welcomers drove me to a filling station for fuel. Despite the temp. we did enjoy the town.
We travelled to deep creek on the 4th and anchored overnight at South Mills before locking out the following morning. I should mention that we did strike several logs on the south portion of the great dismal swap and the water was covered with duck weed.
We arrived in Norfolk on the 5th and tied up in Waterside Marina. Enjoyed our stay there hooked up to power, free showers, pump out facilities and good internet connection.
Carolines sister Debbie arrived from Annandale VA. and rescued Caroline, taking her home for a couple of weeks visit. The picture was taken at Virgina Beach during our stay at Norfolk
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09/20/2011, North Carolina
We leave from Moorehead City on July 31st and travel through a narrow canal, part of the intercoastal waterway. Once through the canal we then enter Ratton Bay which is part of Pamlico Sound. The weather was quite nice until we got about about 2/3 the way to the turn at Bay Pt. The wind picked up to 20knots gusting to 30 from the east and it was quite rough until we again reached the narrow canal. We found a good anchorage at Eastham Creek but again a lightning storm went over with wind gusts to 40knots.
The next day we passed Pamlico Beach went up towards Belhaven and through a long passage in East Dismal Swamp to the Alligator River where we again anchored for the night. Our anchorage was very pleasant with no bugs, a beautiful sunset to finish off the day.
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