Well, this is a bit of a late entry, about three weeks late in fact. So let me catch you up.

When we left off we had just toured the Calhoun Mansion in Charleston. That evening a pretty severe cold front swept through and deposited a bunch of rain and wind over the open ocean track that we had just sailed down, as well as tearing up the ocean between Charleston and points south. We figured that a trip down the ICW to Beaufort, SC would be the best use of our time as the weather wound down, so we launched fairly early down the Ashley River behind the river boat American Glory.

What a beautiful trip. The low Country in all its fall splendor dazzled us as we wound our way up and down creeks, rivers, and bayous. Beautiful plantations with lawns down to the water were everywhere, along with vast tracts of open country full of ducks, geese, and other wildlife. There would simply be no other way to see all of this any other way. And, for the most part, we had it to ourselves as it seemed that most of our fellow southbound migrating sailors had decided to stay in port another day.

We got to Beaufort just at sundown with our taste buds set for Low Country Grits. Would you believe that not one of the open downtown restaurants served this fabulous local specialty? We were floored. So we decided to walk to a local market which was supposed to be three quarters of a mile away to see what they might have. Three miles later we found the store! But, still no dinner was at hand. Luckily there was a local favorite across the street which fed us pretty well with a local dish called Gullah Cuisine. It is a stew of shrimp, sausage, and potatoes, that traces its roots back to the African Rice coast as transmitted to the plantation culture of South Carolina.

With full and happy stomachs we finished our shopping and took a cab back to the downtown marina and turned in anticipating an early go in the morning.

Up well before dawn the next day, it looked as if we had a perfect weather window to make a direct 300 NM sail to our winter home at Ft. Pierce. We stood out of Beaufort road before sun up and were in the Atlantic by 0800. We couldn?? t believe that the rest of the fleet continued to hang on the hook or remain tied up at various marinas between Wrightsville Beach and Beaufort. We figured that the weather would give us at least 48 hours of clear sailing and that the next winter storm would be far more serious. That prediction turned out prescient. While we had a most beautiful sail well off shore, within a few hours of our arrival the next storm hit the coast of Georgia, South and North Carolina and bottled up the southern transition for the better part of a week with wind, rain, and even snow!

It took us 50 hours to make the passage, and it was our farthest off shore and longest passage yet. As we approached Cape Canaveral our course brought us right up to the allowed three mile limit. We had a very surreal dinner as we glided by the space port with all the launch platforms light up as a special show just for us. The ocean was absolutely calm and we were pushed along by a soft warm 10 knot wind. The only thing that could have improved the view would have been a spectacular night shuttle launch.

About midnight the wind continued its clocking around to the south and raised a short fetched head sea that changes our point of sail to a close hauled hard beat into the wind. But, that only lasted until we hit the Ft. Pierce inlet about 0800. There was a strong three knot current running out, which together with the wind made for an interesting approach to the harbor , but we had no problems getting moored in our winter berth. We spent the day cleaning the boat and making preparations to return home. We had a great welcome back to Florida dinner and toasted ourselves for completing our first east coast round trip. ZT is safely secured for the winter and we are planning our first trip to the Bahamas with the knowledge that he have succeeded in our first short ocean passage, been tested by weather and sea, and grown in our ability to handle it all.

After a quiet night on the hook in Wrightsville Beach, we weighed anchor before sunrise and headed down the ICW for Myrtle Beach. However, as we passed the entrance to the Atlantic at the Cape Fear River, Kay said let's go for Charleston. I checked our fuel, and a quick calculation indicated we could make it even if the wind died down. In fact it worked out pretty well. We had enough wind to reduce the power to about fifty percent, giving us about 6.5 knots, which put us at the Charleston Harbor entrance just a bit before sunrise Saturday. Perfect timing. It took us another two hours to make it by Fort Sumter and into the Charleston City Mega Dock. We tied up, cleaned up the boat, had lunch, and after a hot shower, we napped for a couple of hours. I chose the solarium which was quite warm and peaceful.

When we awoke, the Ashley River boat parade was in full bloom. A very nice warm wind was blowing just right for Saturday afternoon sail races. The sailors of Charleston were out in force, and we enjoyed the view while waiting for the marina shuttle to carry us downtown to Meeting Street to visit the Calhoun Mansion, the largest and finest home in the City. I must have missed why it is called Calhoun, as an Atlanta grocer by the name of Williams built it. In any case it was very interestingly built and filled with incredible antiques from the Victorian era. One of the recurrent themes was a rope motif around all the Windows and doors. Our guide told us that to Charleston folks, that symbolized what they called money on the water. In other words, the builder had made his money in shipping. Kay and I concluded that we also had money on the water: ZT!

We had a quiet walk up Church Street to the hustle and bustle of the town market, and then down King Street to see some of the Antique stores. Charleston is just plain fun, and clean, and very pretty. Life seems to have a slower and more graceful than most modern cities. It's a place that invites a long stay of exploration. But, we were on a mission. Low Country shrimp and grits. We picked up our grits at Vickery's and the marina shuttle carried us back to ZT. We were going to have dinner watching the UT game, but fortunately, as it turned out, the local ABC affiliate carried some non descript game, and we were still pretty tired. So, we turned in early anticipating an early launch for Beaufort.

About 0300 a really fast moving cold front blew through dropping a bunch of rain and causing me to get out to check the mooring lines. All was well, and by the time we got up the weather was back to blue skies, but windy and cool.

We took off down the ICW heading toward Beaufort figuring that it would be miserable outside in the Atlantic. For a while we followed a river cruise ship called American Glory, but she was considerably slowed by the wind and all the turns in the various creeks and rivers of the ditch, so we eventually passed her and beat her into Beaufort by over an hours.

Arriving in Beaufort just at sundown was beyond my powers of description beautiful. The Low Country was burnished in shades of brown, red, and green. The sunset was out of a Zane Grey novel, and the town was quaint and charming. However, our continuing quest for the best Low Country grits was thwarted by the lack of open restaurants on Sunday night. The dock master told us there was a grocery store about three quarters away across the bridge we had just sailed under, so we took off on a quest for grits and some victuals for our galley.

Well, an hour later we finally found the Publix, and the nice folks in the store sent us across the street for dinner at Steamers. No grits, but a fine Gullah dinner of sausage, shrimp, and potatoes.
On the cab ride back we measured the walk at over two miles. Oh well, we really needed the exercise anyway.

So this morning we shoved off well before sunrise and led the few and the brave past Paris Island and out into the Atlantic for our third overnight sail. Our plan is to make it to the Ponce Inlet just above Cape Canaveral at Smyrna Beach, then proceed down the ICW for a few miles before stopping for a rest. It's now about 2100 on a dark and moonless night and it looks like we are right on plan for our 185 nautical mile passage. We are about 35 miles off shore, so this is as far as we have been from land since making for the Keys last May. We have seen very few other ships, and no other yachts since we left St. Helena Sound. Not much wind, but a very smooth sea state, and the milky way is so thick with stars it looks like you could reach up and pluck one out of the sky. Kay is asleep here in the solarium, and I am on watch. She has leaned navigation and chart interpretation very well, and is now confident to stand watches for short intervals while I get a cat nap. We have set up the GPS chart plotter to give us an alarm at ten mile check points which works out to about every hour and a half. Also, I have the radar set up to sound an alarm if any target gets within three miles of ZT. This system has really worked well, and I am very impressed with the technology. We are out of cell phone, and thus, internet range, but the satellite TV is working fine and gives us a bit of comfort at being still connected to the land. Even at this distance, and off the mostly uninhabited coastal islands of Georgia, we can see a faint glow of lights over to the west. Several times we have been fooled by rising stars and planets, thinking they were ships. Distances on the water are always deceiving, but even more so at night. One lighted beacon we spotted took us over three hours to pass. It drove Kay nuts because it looked like we were heading right for it for the longest time.

With this over night effort, we should be in winter quarters at Ft. Pierce by Wednesday afternoon. We are both anxious to get home to family and friends, so I know we will get the boat squared away early Thursday and head for the closes airport.

Well, I just spotted another boat, or planet, and I better get back to navigating. I'll sign off for now. But first, I must tell all that we had a perfect sunset for a green flash, and once again, the legendary light eluded us. I?? m still convinced it's a sailors tale.

Well, we are safely anchored in the Wrightsville Beach anchorage with a dozen other sails, right next to the Blockade Runner hotel. I'd like to regale you with stories from my Civil War Blunders book, but sightseeing and navigating on the ICW took up 12 hours today and I didn't get to read anything but charts and GPS plotter!

We had the sails up quite a bit of the day and made great time covering over 80 miles. Our problem is the short daylight of fall. Even though we slipped out of Beaufort this morning at 0644 before sun up, it was a solid hour after dark before we dropped the hook. The last two miles of night navigation to the anchorage were tedious as we had to proceed very slowly with Kay on the bow watch and me with one hand on the helm and the other operating our three million candle power spot light to find the unlighted ICW markers and other uncharted obstacles.

After settling in on the anchor, we had dinner watching the news just like home. I have learned a new trick of leaving the GPS on overnight with some anchor bearings set up electronically. Now I can tell at a glance if we move an inch. Much more comforting that just visual bearings. Interestingly, out of the dozen boats here at leave a third have failed to show anchor lights which seems a bit crazy considering the potential for collision.

We have now been on the boat for a solid week and a day, having covered a total of 430 miles of our 1000 mile trip to Ft. Pierce. We were going to break up the trip with a flight home as we did on the way up. But, with Thanksgiving coming and other commitments building we have committed to pressing on. This means we have at least 8 more days of hard travel and we are both getting a bit tired. It would be great to head out into the ocean and just sail on, but without a crew to share the watch standing, it would be overwhelming. So we have opted for the easy but longer way on the inside, that is the ICW. The benefit will be to see all of the southern coastal towns that we missed on the way up. Tomorrow night we will anchor near Wilmington, SC. Then Beaufort, SC, and finally back to the city docks in Charleston on Sunday.

The beauty of the Carolina coast is breathtaking at times. Millions of uninhabited salt marsh acres and barrier islands teeming with birds and fish. The seagulls have learned to follow the big yachts because their passing stirs up a feast of shrimp and other fishy dinner courses. Along the inhabited side of the ICW are mile after mile of stylish coastal homes, to the point that it seems that every family in North Carolina must have a summer home here on the sound.

In any case, it is a peaceful and colorful place to be in this late fall weather. We should be in the upper seventies tomorrow and keep the sun with us for at least four or five more days�..and by then we'll be back in the sunshine state and back to shorts and Ts.