We left Old Bahama Bay with a flotilla of other boats and headed east through the shallows of Indian Cut to Great Sale Cay. It was a perfect day for sailing, sunny, smooth water and 12-15kts of wind. Great Sale is a Mangrove Cay and not very interesting but a nice protected harbour. We had supper on the boat with Barry and Mike from Blind Faith. They are a father and son team from upstate New York and are living the dream. The next day another glorious day and sailed to Green Turtle Cay. It was low tide and a pilot boat guided us in through the shallow channel into the harbour. Only got stuck once. We stayed at the Green Turtle Club Marina for about 4 days. They had a deal were you eat your dockage. Your restaurant bill is subtracted from your dockage bill, a great deal. We rented a gold cart and toured the island including New Plymouth town on the south part of the Island. Colourful, quaint, little Bahama town with very narrow streets. The crew from Nelleke, Toubadour and Patty Jean gave a send off to Gary on Saturday morning at 6:00am. The next day we had a short 2 hr sail to Great Guana Cay and then to Nippers Pub on the Atlantic side for a pig roast and rum drinks. Incredible view and long sandy beach. Went for a swim in the waves in the aqua blue water.

Jan 28 Left Ponce De Leon and the ICW for the last time. Sailed past Cape Canaveral. At 17:00 we made the decision to sail all night on 4 hr watches. Jim from 20:00 to 01:00, Gary to 05:00 then Wendy saw the sunrise. It is finally starting to warm up! We're going to the Bahamas!!
Jan.29 After our night sail we made our turn east at Lake Worth Florida. We had our weather window to cross the gulf stream. We finally got down to our first layer of clothing and when we arrived in Old Bahama Bay at 17:30 we changed into our summer wardrobe. It was a great crossing. Customs waited for us and two other late arrivals limping in. Mild and clear, stayed up late and walked around the resort. Hardly anyone here. We talked Mike and Barb on S/V Neleke (Moody 42) on the crossing as they were having engine overheating problems. This was to be the start of a new friendship along with Barry and Marcia aboard Troubadour (Tartan 37), also having engine problems on the way over.

We left Oriental NC on Jan. 19 with crew members Gary Stookes and Wendy Walker. We literally went the wrong way for about a mile then got our bearings and headed south east to the ICW a narrow and shallow ditch. Touched bottom twice and scrubbed the keel clean.
Jan. 20 Dolphins swimming in our bow wave, how cool!! Ran aground hard on the sand in the ditch at Carolina beach inlet and got pulled off by Towboat US. Thankfully I was covered by insurance. There are two kinds of sailors, those that have run aground and those that will run aground. I am the former.
Jan.21 First day sailing on the North Atlantic Ocean! Wow! She broke us in easy, then hit us with 25 kt winds and 6 ft confused seas (AKA elephants). Fun was had by all. It was a long day on long bay. We anchored at 11:00 pm but did go 100 miles.
Jan.22 It's back to the ditch to take a break from the rough ride we had yesterday. Made 60 miles and did not touch bottom once (touchwood).
We anchored in Charleston cannot go further due to bridge opening hours.
Jan.23 Made the 9:00am bridge opening and we are off and running. We told golfers along the shore it was too cold here, so we are going to the Bahamas! Two dolphins in the bow wave for about five minutes. Arrived in Beaufort NC 5 min late for fuel. Anchored in the Skull creek.
Jan24 Off the hook at 7:15am. Close call on the wrong side of the channel marker!! (saw 4 ft but no points awarded, one pt. for touching bottom, 5 pts. for getting grounded but able to get off with no assistance, 10 points if tow boat US is called to pull us off.) Put the sails up for about 2 hrs. in the morning. Wind in the afternoon gusting to 35kts mostly on our nose. fueled up with 40 gallons at Hilton Head Harbour. Dropped the hook in the Sapelo River (Dog Hammock, near Blackbeards Island) and played Eva Cassidy to drown out the wind howling in the shrouds. Take a moment...look at were we are..realize the dream is happening and loving it!
Jan. 25 Zig Zagged down the mud river dragging our keel through the mud most of the way and only made 62 miles. Tried to anchor at Jeckyl harbour to no avail. Dropped the hook at mile 703 (Crooked river).
Jan26 and Jan.27 Sunny and cool (long Johns in Florida!?). Out to the North Atlantic at St. John river. The wind dropped to 5-7 kts. and we motor sailed under Genoa and main. Passed about 12 fishing boats. Called capt. Tim with toe boat for local knowledge into Ponce De Leon Inlet. Ran aground anyway and called Capt. Tim to pull us off. He guided us to an anchorage and we grounded again! The ICW sucks, we are going to sea.

I purchased the Patty Jean in Annapolis MD in mid October 2009. Gary (The Crapton) Stookes flew down with me to give me assistance as he knows a thing or two about sail boats. We both learned a lot about the boat in a short time. We also learned that "Annapolis is a drinking town with a sailing problem". We returned home in late October.
Step 2 was to sail the boat from Annapolis to Oriental NC to get out of the seasonal continental weather influence (AKA winter). On Dec. 7/09 we sailed from Annapolis. In two days we sailed about 100 miles down the Chesapeake Bay to Norfork Va. From there we started at mile 0 of the ICW (AKA "The Ditch"). We started out by getting a US Coast Guard escort through the Naval base past a submarine leaving the docks. This was the one and only warm day of the trip (72F). We waited for two draw bridges and went through one lock the first day with no problems. The only trouble we had over the 7 days was a generator belt that self destructed as we were motoring down the ditch. We changed it and were underway again in half an hour. That night we stopped in Coinjock NC and went to the local NAPA parts store for another spare belt.
It just happened to be Karioke night at the local watering hole so we stopped in for a beer and chance to meet some of the locals. We stroked off Coinjock from the list of places to visit again. We finally sailed into Oriental and docked the boat and put her to bed while we went back home for Christmas.