We had a great trip in the moonlight - 28 hours. We could feel the temperature getting warmer the further south we went. Finally could start taking off layers. I saw another shooting star. We saw lots of pods of birds just floating on the waves - looked like they were having meetings - really wierd. Matt discovered that we could get TV reception where we were off shore so we watched the gator game all the way down. Pretty cool to watch tv while you are sailing. It was against FSU and it was the last time the seniors and Tebo would be playing in the swamp. The gators blew FSU away. Great game. Had our first breakfast of the trip in a little diner across the street from the marina. I am so sick of peanut butter on toast!!! We arrived back in Ft Pierce exactly 6 months to the day from when we left on 5/29/09. How strange is that?

We saw 4 warships going into Jax. Pretty interesting especially since they let us get closer than the usual 2 mile restriction - we were about 1/4 mile off of them. Going into the St Augustine Inlet was really unpleastant - there is a lot of shoaling which constantly changes so the markers are not set in a specific postion on the map because they change the markers. The markers aren't lit and hard to see. The inlet is really shallow and it was really rough so the boat was hard to control as well. Really "fun". The area is really pretty on the south side -all marshes and beaches. We stayed at the Conch House Marina. there is a bar and a restaurant. The bar is on the dock and looks like one of those old beach bars you find in the older smaller towns. It even had a crows nest. The restaurant was really different - they had treehouse tables.. We went into town -it is really pretty. Most of the spanish buildings have been preserved. We had lunch in a beautiful hotel that was built in the 1800's and renovated 10 years ago in a beautiful moroccan style. Had dinner at a pub that was completely decorated in Gator memorbillia.

not too bad of a run - a little bumpy. We saw lots of dolphins - some of them played around our bow. It is really cool watching them. We met the bartender, Kristin, again She and I discovered a love for football last time we met. We (I) had fun watching football with her all day sunday. We met some really nice people - one of which Pam - could imitate the pot hole commercial to perfection. Really funny. It was a red letter day - when i docked the boat Matt said he couldn't have done better himself. Now that is a compliment! We had really wanted to go play on Cummberland Island but the weather was rainy and windy so we didn't get a chance. We definitely want to come back and explore the area.

This is another overnight trip - 19 hours. We had a beautiful sunset. Seas were really calm. There were millions of stars to sea since we were about 20 miles offshore. We didn't time leaving Baldhead at the right time and ended up having to enter charleston inlet in the dark. We had been here on the way up but it still confusing at night. On the way in i told Matt that i had never seen a shooting star - 5 minutes later i saw FOUR - one right after the other. Docking at our marina was a challenge since we had not been there before. The marina is blocked by a jetty so was really a challeng with the lights of the docks. When we docked at the fuel dock at 4:30am our friend Donny comes riding down the dock on his boat! He had heard us talking to the security guard on the radio. We had a nice visit and dinner with he and his wife Louise on their boat. Louise took me to the grocery store and there was a Starbucks next store - my first Starbucks in 8 months!! There is an old aircraft carrier docked right next to our marina, with a tiny sub attached. Not as big as i would have thought. I was really mad that I missed the Monday night football game - Patriots and Indy - my favorite teams and of course ended up being one of those really good games!!! I told Matt we have to start planning our stops around football from now on!

we got to Cape Lookout late yesterday afternoon. We did a quick run to the beach for Nemo. It was really low tide so the shoal was exposed. Really neat the way you could see the ripples in the sand from where it is usually covered. Lots of shells but not anything you don't see in Fla. I found two scallop shells - one that is colored like a sunrise, the other colored like a sunset. We decided to get up and leave really early again this morning because Tropical storm Ida is expected to come this way with 5-7 ft seas and 30 knot winds. Cape Lookout is really exposed. It was another overnight trip to Baldhead. Half way there the winds kicked up to 25 knots and the seas were at least 6' rollers. It was dark outside so we couldn't see how big they were! By the time we got to the shoals that extend out from baldhead it was really rough and the winds were 20 knots. Not fun at all since we were coming into the inlet at night. Really hard to see at night coming in because there are so many lights competing with the bouy markers. The entrance to the marina at Bald head is really tight and not well marked. Luckily we had been there on the way up so we knew what to look for. It was a really long trip - about 21 hours. Not fun in weather like that. The winds gusted up to 30 knots and the seas were 4-7 at the inlet. Where we were at cape lookout the seas were 10-12 with 40 plus winds. Glad we left! We just hung out at the boat for a few days waiting on the storm to go away. We had been here before on the way up so we didn't do any touring. You can see the pictures in the album from before.

We are leaving tomorrow - Sat 11/7 - to go around Cape Hatteras to Cape Lookout. It should take us about 27 hours. We won't have cell service or internet svc along the way so i will check in when we get where we can.