Debi
12/04/2009

We were up in the dark (6:00 am) so that we could make the 7:00 am bridge out of St. Augustine. We had to get the two anchors up and that took a little doing. We motored the whole way to Daytona Beach and arrived at 2:30 pm. We are staying at the Halifax River Yacht Club. This is a very fancy place, and has absolutely wonderful people. We were greeted by Brian the dock master and he and his crew got us all tied up securely and then he took us on a tour of the yacht club. He even played his guitar and sang us a song in his office. We met up with our friends, Jim and Kathy from home and had a wonderful dinner in the yacht club restaurant. We are safely secured at an alongside tie waiting out the big storm that is heading our way. Ben and Jerry's once again and bed by 9:30 pm.

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Debi
12/01/2009

Oh my, only 24 days till Christmas. YIKES!! We've been doing a little shopping along the way, but nothing like I normally do. We spent the day walking around St. Augustine (the oldest city in the country) and stopping in about thirty stores. Carl has been a real trooper. He has done more shopping with me on this trip than he has done in our entire marriage.

We had a great lunch at the A1A Ale Works (where they make several kinds of beer). I had delicious pumpkin ale. After lunch, Carl said that he needed a haircut very badly. We found a barber a couple of blocks away and he was able to get his haircut.

We were heading back to our boat and ran into a guy we met on Cumberland Island two days ago. Then we saw our friends, Howard and Donna who we met in Elizabeth City. Once again, what a small world. We are turning in early tonight and heading toward Daytona Beach tomorrow.

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Debi
11/30/2009

Three weeks ago today, we left Portsmouth, VA to head south. We can't believe it took this long to get to Florida, but it did. The weather was perfect today, so instead of motoring down the ICW, we motor sailed and hugged the coast. It was a glorious day. We arrived in St. Augustine inlet around 3:30 pm to see an awesome wind para surfer cutting in and out the inlet. He was at it for an hour or so. I really wished I could have seen his body up close! We anchored and had good holding. Finally, we caught up with our friends, Kathy and Jim Beardon, from our yacht club back home. They left a couple of weeks before us, but took their time doing a little sightseeing along the way. It was so great to see familiar faces from home. They came over for cocktails tonight and we shared our last journeys with each other. It was great. We were sitting around chatting when I looked over and saw Hanna in their dinghy, no big deal; she loves to get into our dinghy. I said something to Carl about it and he went over to pull the dinghy in closer to the boat to let her off and back onto our boat and surprise - she was SOAKING WET!!! Bad parents! We were watching, but we took our eyes off our little one for just a second and she must have fallen overboard. Thank God she was able to climb back into the Bearden's dinghy "Lucky Charm". She saved her life! If you haven't looked at any of the pictures I've posted in the photo gallery, you must check them out now to see the photos of Hanna soaking wet. I had to throw her in the shower to rinse her off. She hated it and especially the towel drying. She's been licking herself for about an hour now. She is not the most graceful cat. Actually, she is very clumsy. She's fallen off our dock 7 times now and has swam ashore 125'. I knew there had to be a time on this trip that she would end up in the water. We've been SO careful. Parents, it only takes a second!!

Dinner tonight - Terry's enchiladas she made and we froze last time she was visiting us. We added black beans and rice to the menu and it was an awesome meal!!! It is a whopping 8:08 pm and we are heading to bed! We'll spend the day here tomorrow and then head on down the ICW Tuesday morning to Daytona Beach where I will visit with my Dad.

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Debi
11/29/2009

Finally, we made it to Florida!!! We arrived yesterday morning at 11:30 am to Fernandina Beach. This is Florida's northernmost city and is on Amelia Island. It was discovered in 1562 by a French explorer Jean Ribault, who named the island Isle de Mai, the Spanish settled the island in 1567. They renamed it Santa Maria, established a mission and built Fort San Fernando. In 1702, the British captured the island and gave it a name that finally stuck, Amelia, in honor of King George II's daughter. In its earlier years, pirates and smugglers used it as their stronghold, and during Prohibition, rum runners continued the tradition. Eight different flags have flown over Amelia Island. The island is the only place in the United States to have been claimed by so many governments.

It took us 28 hours and 152 miles to arrive here. We left Charleston at 7:15 am with the sun shining and headed out the busy inlet. The winds were about 15 knots and the seas were about 2-3 feet. We motored until we turned south and then put up the jib. The winds were coming west/northwest and were supposed to subside and turn northwest and then north as the day progressed, but instead they picked up to 25 knots, stayed west/northwest until about 2 am, then they slowly shifted to northwest and then north by 5 am. Consequently, we had a rough ride! We averaged about 6 miles per hour, but were thrown around all night like we were in a washing machine. I couldn't believe how rough it was and it wasn't even a storm. Sailing at night wasn't scary at all. The only problem was it was an uncomfortable sail. Every few minutes the bow would ride down a wave and then the next one would come crashing over the boat all the way up the front part of the enclosure. The zippers leaked some and because the hatch down the companionway was open, we got a bit of water below. It was next to impossible to go below for food or drink or to pee because we were stepping on the slippery floor and sliding and being thrown into things. Poor Hanna. I went below and brought her food up and fed her small amounts periodically. Then she was lapping up water out of my hand. I knew she had to use her cat box, so I made it below and brought that up into the cockpit. I came so close to dumping the entire thing on the floor as I was climbing the steps. What a mess that would have been! I put her in it and had to hold her body upright as she was bobbing and weaving. She did her business. Carl and I were dressed in flannel lined jeans, and many layers of shirts. I had on my watch cap and we both had on gloves and we were wrapped up in a blanket in the cockpit. Hanna stayed underneath the blanket in my lap most of the time. We were cold, but not as cold as our friends who were on a 38' schooner named Winfield Lash. You can read about this man David and his boat on the internet. He is an absolutely amazing man. He is 71 years old and he built his own boat. It only took him 16 years. We met him in Charleston along with his girlfriend, Marge (68). This was her second overnight and as she said several times to me, "was not what she signed up for". The point of the story is that they didn't have auto pilot like we do, so he was at the helm for 30 hours. And worse than that they didn't have any type of enclosure. Every wave that hit our enclosure hit them in the face. The first hour out they were soaked and freezing, but with boat captains you nevert turn around!! We invited them over for drinks after we were all settled in. As they told us their story, he said that they couldn't go below at all and their cockpit was filled with water, so that when it became really rough and he had to relieve himself, the only thing he could do was to pee in the water in the cockpit!!! There are scuppers in the cockpit, so he figured the water was draining out, and the new water that came over the sides would rinse it all away. Marge was all for this, as she said "he was NOT leaving her at the helm"! This poor woman didn't even have boots, she was in tennis shoes. So, if you ask me how bad it was, well I'd have to say not too bad really, when you consider how much worse it could have been. Marge and David are heroes in my mind!

It's now Sunday morning. We took a 20 minute dinghy ride over to Cumberland Island. It was absolutely gorgeous. It is a National Park. We walked through the dense oak forest with Spanish moss draping all the trees and then to the other side of the island to a wonderful beach. We walked the beach for an hour or so picking up shells. We were getting hungry, so we took the dinghy back to the Fernandina Beach town dock and went ashore. We had lunch at a fabulous little restaurant called 29 South. I had shrimp and grits once again - they were wonderful! We shopped for three hours and I was able to get a few Christmas presents.

We are heading over at 6 pm to have dinner with David and Marge on their boat and then we think we will be heading back down the ICW to St. Augustine tomorrow morning, unless the weather is gorgeous and we can do it in a day's sail.

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Debi
11/26/2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!! This sure isn't the same as being home. We miss everyone so much. We started the day doing laundry (again), washing the boat, and going to the drugstore for Bonin (just in case we get seasick on our ocean voyage tomorrow). A couple of the ladies got together and organized a Thanksgiving dinner for everyone in the marina. At 2 pm we had a gathering of about 25 people. Everyone made a dish or two. I made homemade cranberry sauce yesterday and a sweet potato dish this morning. We had two turkeys, a ham, tandoori chicken, pork tenderloin, fisherman's stew, stuffing, beans and about 15 other sides. There was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie, cranberry pie, chocolate cake, key lime pie and many more deserts. I felt like we were at a fabulous buffet. The best part was that it was a breeze to clean up. Everyone took their food dish, cleaned up their plates and we were done. It was nice to be with people who were all missing their families.

We are back on the boat and Carl is putting together a "ditch bag" for us. For those who don't know what that is, it is a bag that has life supporting supplies in it in case we were to have a mishap. Our plan is to leave at 7 am. We were lucky to meet two other boats who are also sailing south. We now have a "buddy" boat plan. It gives me a small sense of security. The weather window looks good, but cold. We should be sailing about 160 miles or 30 hours, so we should arrive in Fernandina Beach (if plans don't change) sometimes between 12 and 2 pm on Saturday. This is our first overnight passage, so wish us luck, keep us in your prayers for a warm and safe journey and we'll post again when we have internet service.

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11/25/2009

We had a great night's sleep on Price Creek. We were up at 6:15 and headed out by 7 am. We were in Charleston by 11 am. After many phone calls to marinas trying to figure out where to go I decided we needed to stay at the Maritime Marina because it was closest to downtown. We came into the marina to get fuel and while Carl was fueling up I went up to the office and chatted with the dock master and dock hands and next thing you know, they moved a few boats around a we had a slip. ;) Sometimes, it does pay to be a woman. We got all settled in and then walked two blocks to a great lunch at Ted's and then to a Harris Teeter to get provisions. Two hours, and $250 later (but I saved $45 with my VIC card), we pushed the cart back to the marina and got all the groceries stowed away. I had to defrost the refrigerator/freezer because it was icing up and making funny noises. That would ruin our day if we lost our ability to keep food cold.
We cleaned up and headed out to our favorite wine bar in Charleston, called Social. We each had a flight of wine and a beautiful cheese, cherry relish, truffle honey and toast points appetizer. We were content after that, so we walked back to the boat and had a bowl of Ben & Jerry's. Bedtime 9:30 pm.

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