10 June – Our closing days in Key West were full of boat preparations, fun and a touch of sadness at leaving our many friends. The week prior to leaving was Conch republic week, a celebration of the brief (tongue-in-cheek) secession of the Keys from the United States. There were home made paddle boat races, a recreation of a battle that occurred only in the imagination of some old Key West Conchs. And then there were the drag races down Duval Street which consisted of drag queens racing in shopping carts and a week later, poster bed races!
After the festivities, I drove our car to Christopher’s home Beaufort, NC and then I flew back to Key West eager to set sail the next day. NOT! The combination of a strong high pressure area to the east and a low to the west kept strong east southeast winds in the 25-knot range blowing for days. It was frustrating; the sky was blue and temperatures were in the 80’s but to leave Key West, you must sail due east at least until you get to Vaca Key where you can then only just barely begin to sail a more northerly course and not beat into big waves and wind right on the nose.
The winds howled for 3 days and with a more moderate forecast, we finally got underway Monday morning and hour after friends Tom and Gerri in m/s Fairhaven. Once clear of Boca Chica, Tom called us and said it was really kicking outside, with big waves and winds over 20, gusting to 27-knots so he was going to go to Key West and then sail back up on the Gulf side and in the shelter of the Keys. Sailboat Bill expressed doubt about those conditions so with the forecast calling for things to moderate and our friends on the dock to blow conch shells and say goodbye, we cast off lines at 0800 and motored out of the snug harbor but just in case, I put a reef in the main on the way out. An hour later I called Bill…”Tom was right!”
The wind was blowing steady at 22-knots, sometimes gusting as high as 29 and it was right on the nose. We pounded into it, taking solid waves over our bow and I briefly considered turning around but Teresa was all for pressing on so press on we did, making no more than 3 knots of boat speed as we pinched our was east. Then, at almost exactly 1100 as if a switch was thrown, the wind dropped to a steady 15-knots and although it took a few hours for the waves to flatten, we had an exhilarating sail to Vaca Key. There, we took a mooring in Boot Key Harbor and spent a peaceful and very enjoyable night, the first small leg of our long voyage back to Chesapeake Bay behind us.
The next day we sailed in another 15-20-knot southeasterly about 40 miles to Rodriguez Key on the ocean side of Key Largo. After dinner in the cockpit, we sipped wine and then at sunset, a cool guy in a kilt (and probably a caboodle) on a catamaran named, Go Lassie, treated the anchorage to a half-hour of live bagpipe playing.
After an early morning departure, we had a dynamite sail the whole 43 miles to Cape Florida channel on Key Biscayne where upon arriving at No Name harbor, our friends from Boca Chica in m/s Fairhaven were pulling in just moments before us. We anchored side by side and all went ashore to the “little Cuban” restaurant where we had a “few” beers and 3 entrees. Sometime during dinner an enormous catamaran (maybe 50 ft?) came into the small harbor and attempted to anchor right in front of Lastdance. I called out, “Hey captain, you’re right over my anchor.” No reply, so I jumped in my dinghy and once alongside him I repeated that he was right over my anchor. He asked, “How much scope do you have out?” I replied, “About 60 ft” He says, “That’s way too much.” I says, “It’s 12 ft deep, that’s 5 to one ratio, besides, I’ll be the judge of how much scope I put out.” “How much do you have out,” I ask. “25 feet” he says. I laugh, “You’re gonna drag anchor wherever you go with just 25 ft.” Anyway, after some squabbling, he moved to the back of the small anchorage and I returned to the restaurant to find a check for $136. The 2 entrees were $24, the beers were $106!
We parted ways with m/s Fairhaven in Miami, they going inside and we sailed outside to Lake Worth. A day later, we again shared an anchorage with them south of St Lucie called, Peck Lake. The next day found us in Vero Beach where we enjoyed a cruisers “happy hour” and we met Chuck & Stuart of s/v Long Gone and they knew Dirk and Nancy, some other Boca Chica friends of ours.
Unfortunately we didn’t have to spend even a day in St Augustine but we anchored once again under the long silent cannons of Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish fort that guarded the harbor for centuries. In the morning, we went out the inlet in very boisterous conditions. There were angry breaking waves over the shoals to the north and south of the channel which made conditions seem worse than they were but once clear of the shallows, we turned north and made great stress-free time out on the ocean and then spent a nice afternoon and evening in Fernandina, a beautiful village with The Palace, the oldest bar in Florida.
Days later and after several nights of tranquil anchorages, we arrived in Charleston and anchored in the wide open, noisy and very fast flowing Ashley River. We had a few glasses of wine, some hot dogs and then we were both asleep by nine. From Charleston we made an uneventful passage to Winyah Bay and then up to Georgetown but the main anchorage was full so after getting whacked by a 30-knot rain squall, we dropped the hook “in the back” by the old steel mill. It was like something out of an old Batman movie…almost gothic with hissing steam from the nearby paper mill and the rusted remains of a by-gone era along the shore behind us.
We enjoyed the most scenic part of the ICW the next day, the Waccamaw River. It meandered through South Carolina until it brought us back to the coast and the populated Myrtle Beach area but not before we met Tug Buse, a young man on an adventure in a 17’ sailboat. He left Iowa 9 months ago and by taking the Mississippi and several other rivers, he got to the Gulf of Mexico and is now sailing up the east coast hoping to make it to Maine by September.
We made Mile Hammock Bay on Camp LeJeune the next day and then Beaufort the day after. There, we reunited with my Christopher, Michelle and the grandkids. After hauling out Lastdance for bottom painting and some repairs/maintenance, Teresa drove to Raleigh to spend a few days with her daughter Ashley. We stayed at Christopher's for a week while Lastdance was on the hard, but not before we had a fun dinner aboard with friends Jon & Michelle. We got to spend a lot of time with my grandkids, Furi and Ali and even taught them how to use the dinghy with an outboard engine. Then, driving up in two vehicles, we brought our car back to our marina in Maryland and then returned the same day, a 16-hour round trip that included lunch at the Big Owl with friends Tom and Mark.
After saying goodbye to Tug and back in company with m/s Fairhaven, we approached Little River and the beautiful anchorage in Calabash Creek. I’ve always wanted to spend a night here and maybe hear the ghost of Jimmy Durante say the words that he ended every performance with, “Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.” It was dead low tide and the cruising pilot said that there was less than 5’ of water at the entrance to the creek at low tide but it was late and there wasn’t any place else to drop the hook for the night. With her 4 1/2' draft, Fairhaven led the way in and promptly went hard aground but an hour later and with the help of a rising tide and TowBoat/US, she was free and we followed her into what was the nicest anchorage of the voyage. Back in Beaufort work progressed on Lastdance and after nine days, we got underway bound for Belhaven, NC. From there we had an uneventful trip to the Alligator River where we stayed at the famous Miss Wanda’s marina, a clean and well maintained respite just south of Albermarle Sound. While there, we met Walter and Brenda aboard their boat s/v Brandaris and all enjoyed dinner at the local Shell gas station! We traveled in company with Brandaris as far as Norfolk where they went out on the ocean for the next leg of their voyage back to Canada and we turned north up Chesapeake Bay for the last leg of our voyage to Maryland.
Three days later, after 9 months and about 2800 miles, we made it back to Kent Island, Mayland, thereby closing the circle on our voyage. Now we’re looking forward to “taking care of business,” which included doctor appointments and other administrative chores that fell by the wayside while we were away. My neck scans came out negative which was cause for a mild celebration so we overindulged in food and wine when we got back to Lastdance. While we're here, we’ll also visit family and sail on beautiful Chesapeake Bay and then get Lastdance ready to sail south again in the fall. Keep in touch - Ron
|
||
28 March – After weeks of dockside practices, we began March by winning the group category in the 48th Key West Conch Shell Blowing Contest. Our Key West Naval Air Station Conchestra & Conchettes consisted of 11 male conch shell blowers dressed in Village People garb tooting “YMCA” on conch shells and 11 female dancers. After winning the event, we walked down Duval Street to Captain Tony’s for some adult refreshments. Let me tell you, Duval Street in Key West is not the place for a guy to be wearing a sarong! From Captain Tony’s we marched to Rick’s Place for some great drinks and a comedy act by Adrian, a displaced and somewhat deranged Englishman. Several drinks and 60 minutes of belly busting laughs later, we strolled over to Kellies on Whitehead Street for wings and margaritas before driving back to the Navigator Pub at our marina on Boca Chica Key. There we imbibed more adult drinks and rehashed our 15-minutes of conch blowing glory until the wee hours.
A week later, Teresa and I drove north to Miami to renew my captain license and to attend the Seatrade Cruise Industry Trade Exhibition. What a treat. I saw many of my old co-workers and customers, including my good friend Angelo Fragala. Afterwards, we had dinner that night in Lombardi’s at Bayside, Miami with my friend Rich. The next day we had breakfast with our good friends David and Linda at the Floridian, a Ft Lauderdale landmark and then after picking up our mail, we drove home to Key West.
St Patrick’s Day celebrations were relatively quiet during the day. Teresa was working and several of the guys including me were down with the flu. By late afternoon though, we began drifting up in ones and twos to The Navigator Pub here at the marina. Eddie and Jerry were there…both thoroughly intoxicated and not surprisingly, they were painted green. By the time Teresa got home, Eddie had everyone’s face adorned with green food coloring and the Guinness flowed non-stop. Sometime during this beer fest, Eddie, John and Vicky went AWOL but we soon discovered that they swam out to the little island off the Tiki-bar beach. Then, much to our surprise, a small wedding party assembled on the beach and the bride to be, dressed in a white gown, came into the bar and invited all of us to attend her wedding.
There was no doubt she was Irish, but given our degree of inebriation and painted faces, we were unsure of what to do but she returned and once again invited us to participate. Not needing a third invitation, we scrambled out of the bar and 6 of us formed an arch of swords. Not having swords however, we just raised our arms while clinging to our glasses of Guinness with our free hands. The wedding ceremony ended on a happy note and we all drifted back to the bar along with the bride and groom who bought a round of Irish Whisky for everyone. Ya gotta love the Irish!
The St Patrick’s Day wedding was good practice because the following weekend, our good friends Hammer & Julie of s/v Jewel of Athena got married here at the marina. Friends and family flew in and a bunch of us sailors here at Boca Chica organized bachelor and bachelorette parties Friday night. The ladies went off on a sunset cruise aboard a big catamaran courtesy of Lou of s/v Lady Nancy II; the guys did a pub crawl that began at Finnegan’s Wake and worked through the saloons along the docks to Schooners Wharf. Both groups then met at Two Friends Bar in Key West for late night karaoke.
Not many made it up to the Navigator for morning coffee the next day but as the morning wore on, more folks, led by Vicky & Teresa gathered at the Navigator to decorate for the wedding. By 4pm, the beach and Tiki-Bar were dressed out in balloons and frilly stuff and guests began arriving bearing tons of food of every description. Six of us “sideboys,” who were dressed in T-shirts and sarongs, bore kayak paddles in lieu of swords to form the traditional arch for the newly married couple to pass under after the ceremony. Then, suddenly short one sideboy, we shanghaied Eddie of s/v Running Wild. Eddie is a crusty old Marine; a survivor of the horrific battle of Khe Sanh, Vietnam in 1968. When he saw us earlier, he mocked our sarongs and swore he’d have to be dead to ever be caught wearing one but when offered the chance to be in the wedding party, he retrieved his straw hat and then wrapped himself in a colorful sarong, saying, “Anyone calls this a dress is dead-meat!”
With the sun low in the sky as a background, the wedding went off without a hitch. The bride and groom survived passing under an arch of sharp kayak paddles held up by six drunken men in sarongs and as the reception began with abundant food and drink, the sun set below the horizon accompanied by the daily ritual of conch shells being blown loudly all over the marina. Life can still be good.
We recovered from Hammer and Julie’s wedding in time to drive north to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral to hook up with Jim and Claudia Bellew. They were over from London to visit Jim’s daughter Danielle who lives in St Augustine, and not knowing when we’d ever see them again, we didn’t want to miss this opportunity. We rendezvoused shortly after entering the space center and after a brief lunch, we had a great day time at the IMAX Theater which was featuring Hubble telescope intergalactic photos. Afterwards we toured exhibits and rode in the Space Shuttle simulator, all the time catching up on old times while avoiding politics. Hopefully we’ll see them again in France or the UK in the not too distant future.
Teresa saw a cardiologist and has things under control and my thyroid thing is doing fine enough that I don’t have to see my oncologist until we return north. My knee situation however, is a combination of a torn meniscus, a something ACL thing and an 18mm bone fragment drifting around in there so the orthopedic doc here says I need surgery but with a 6-week light-duty recovery period, I’m going to wait until we’re back in Maryland. Other than that and a serious case of paradise’itis, we’re doing fine health wise.
This past weekend was the big Blue Angels Air Show. While upwards of 25,000 visitors gathered at the general public viewing area, 30 of us from the marina set up our own little VIP area at the tiki-huts on the marina beach. The show was spectacular! There were vintage bi-planes doing loops at the break-neck speed of 80 mph and there were F-18’s zooming by at tree-top level at over 500 mph. As usual, the Blue Angels took center stage with incredible aerial acrobatics that seemingly defied the laws of physics and after cooking, eating and drinking Saturday away, we then did it all over again Sunday. Yup, the Key West Naval Air Station at Boca Chica is truly a paradise within a paradise and we’ll be sure to return next fall.
With the air show over and coming of spring, many of our friends here are already beginning their migration north, some going as far away as Minnesota. When a boat leaves, everyone gathers on the dock to wish them well and sends them off with a cacophony of conch shells blowing, a forlorn sound indeed. The first two boats that departed headed out for the Bahamas but a month later they were still in Miami waiting out bad weather. When they finally did head offshore, sadly one of the boats, s/v Paradox went aground on a reef while entering Bimini and was a total loss. Now as we enter April, friends are leaving with greater frequency and fewer people are on the dock to see them off and I can’t help but wonder if anyone will be here to blow a conch shell for us when we leave in 2 weeks. Stay tuned, we’ll let you know.
|
||
28 Feb – February 21st marked one year since I met Teresa and all I can say is a year and a day ago…”who woulda thought?” I was in a very dark place and my grief over Carol’s death was intensifying, not diminishing. Suddenly, this vibrant woman from Raleigh, NC, steps into my life and the sharp pain became a dull throbbing and I soon realized that life would go on. Now a year later, Teresa and I are happily married; we’ve sailed through ancient Greek islands, moved aboard Lastdance and completed a 1400-mile voyage from Chesapeake Bay to Key West. She’s adapted very well to living aboard a 37-foot boat and has become a fairly competent 1st Mate given she had never sailed before meeting me. No, I don’t need to be told…I’ve been twice blessed!
Earlier in the month my uncle Frank passed away so I flew to New York for his funeral. It was cold, very cold and me without winter clothes but my brother Tony met me at the airport with a coat so I survived the frigid temperatures and made it safely back to paradise to thaw out. Sail on, Uncle Frank. Sail on!
It’s been a hectic month here in Key West. There have been the usual evening Happy-Hour happenings here at Boca Chica but we’ve seen a lot of friends from “up north” as well. Friends Arne & Karen came to town with their beautiful daughter, “Bella.” I had to travel “up north” to Miami to renew my captains’ license and so we were able to have dinner with friends Joe & Julie who were in South Beach on vacation. The next day we met John, Gail, Charlie and Val in Fort Lauderdale for drinks at the Elbo Room and then lunch. We then celebrated Valentine’s Day along with Capt Ron (aka Squeek) and his lovely wife Vicky at Geiger Key’s Smokehouse Restaurant, and then ended the day with a hard drinking pub crawl in Key West.
Yesterday Teresa did her first dinghy solo; she prepped and started the outboard and then motored around the marina alone. That might seem trivial to seasoned sailors but it is an accomplishment that many “boat wives” never master or even try, even after many years on the water. They should be able to handle a dinghy alone because in addition to giving a woman a sense of independence so that she doesn’t need the captain to ferry her around, it’s also a safety issue because if the hubby ever fell overboard, she’d likely be the only one around to save him. Kudos to you Teresa!
Teresa and I ate out in a Key West Italian restaurant for the first time to celebrate the anniversary of our first date which took place in an Italian restaurant in Raleigh, NC. After months of enjoying excellent seafood, I was skeptical about eating Italian food in a town with only three Italian restaurants but we gave it a try. Driving into town in the rain, we pulled up to our first choice, Mangia-Mangia. There was a crowd waiting outside and the line went around the corner so we drove on to Duval Street, parked the car and walked to La Trattoria. It was fully booked! Back in the car, we drove to Abbondanza where the wait was only 30 minutes and well worth it, we had a great meal and a very good bottle of wine. Back aboard Lastdance, we recounted the events of past year and finished off the bottle of Barbera we had opened before going to dinner.
To close out February, I crewed aboard Captain Ron’s boat, s/v POW-MIA in the Wrecker’s Regatta, a 7 mile race from Key West harbor out to Sands Key light. We sailed out of Boca Chica with Ron’s spectacular spinnaker, a custom black sail entirely of the POW-MIA emblem. I have to say, I was proud to be on that boat as all eyes in a marina full of veterans, turned to watch us stand out to sea. We sailed to Key West and loitered around as boats arrived from near and far for the race, including six large schooners and 29 other boats of every description. We crossed the line not more than a few seconds after the sound of the start gun and while I steered through the fleet of boats jockeying for favorable wind, Ron, John and Jay broke out the spinnaker and once again, all eyes were on s/v POW-MIA as we surged ahead. We didn’t win or even place but we beat out 2 other faster boats from our marina and that made Capt Ron a happy camper. Stay tuned for more of Life in Key West, as spring approaches we’ll be doing more sailing and sharing more adventures with y’all.
|
||
20 Jan – Teresa surprised me the other night with a birthday party at The Navigator, our Tiki-bar-restaurant-morning coffee hang-out here at Key West, Boca Chica Naval Air Station. All of the regulars were there and we had a great time, especially when Teresa made me model the male sailing sarongs she bought for me. Let me tell you, these folks are no lightweights…there are combat hardened Green Berets, Rangers and submariners and it was a real effort to strut around in what they called a “dress” but Sailboat Bill helped me overcome my inhibitions by joining me in modeling one of the sarongs and we all have a great laugh.
Our good friend Captain Mark from s/v Beleza was in town last week so Bill, Teresa and me put him through several days of face paced eating and drinking, beginning with a pub crawl the day he arrived. We began at The Navigator here on Boca Chica and then drifted into town where we sampled several mojitos at El Meson de Pepe. From there we strolled up Duval Street to Captain Tony’s, the original Sloppy Joes where Ernest Hemmingway spent afternoons drinking after writing his daily allotment of 700 words. From Tony’s we stopped at Kelly McGillis’s place for super margaritas and then out to dinner at El Siboney for excellent Cuban food.
The next day we all went to Blue Haven for breakfast of eggs and great bloody marys and then lunch and beers at a Thai restaurant. Bill has decided to winter here in Key West so the next day we moved his boat s/v Galena from a mooring to a slip…now it’s my turn to call him “Marina Boy.” Later that night, we used Mark’s spacious hotel suite to cook up a spaghetti, meatball and sausage dinner and invited my good friend and old college roommate, Ed Reilly and his lovely wife Ann Marine. They in turn invited us to dinner at their home the next night when they were hosting a large buffet dinner party for artist who would be exhibiting at the annual Sculpture Key West event. Bill opted out of the “artsy” affair so we brought along our dock mate, Captain Ron’s daughter Petra. Petra was here visiting on break from art school college in Maine so she got to hob-nob with the local artist in a warm climate.
Captain Mark left the next day and I got my knee and shoulder “fixed” at the local orthopedic doctor. Both had really been bothering me for months so it is a great relief that “our health-care system in crisis” provided me with a quick and effective cure in such short order.
With my “new” shoulder and knee, we connected with friends Steve and Kirsten in s/v Hook. We first met them in North Carolina and have crossed tracks with them all the way down the coast. They have their children Emma and Madelyn and Noodles the ferret with them and they arrived in Key West last night after an overnight passage from Fort Myers so after Teresa finished her kayak lessons this morning, we went into town and met them for a longggg lunch.
Next week we’ll probably haul Lastdance out of the water for a few days to clean and paint her bottom. In the meantime, I’ll continue promoting my book, Sailing with Carol which just received a good review in the February issue Latitudes & Attitudes magazine. Sail on!
|
||
2 Jan – Our “Taxis, Trains & Automobile” Christmas was great but it was tiring. As planned, we rented a car in Key West and drove to Miami. There, we took an overnight train to Raleigh, NC where we had Christmas Eve lunch with Teresa’s daughter Ashley. We then rented another car and drove to Camp LeJeune where we had Christmas Eve dinner with my son Christopher, his wife Michelle and the grandkids, Furi and Ali. Then using our own car which we left there in the fall, we drove to Brooklyn on Christmas Day to have dinner with my mom, brother and Victoria. The next day, we began our drive “home,” stopping overnight in Virginia and then Jacksonville, FL before arriving at Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West. We did some laundry then chilled out for a day before heading into the Navy housing facility at Truman Annex which is located right in downtown Key West just a few blocks from Duval Street, the epicenter of all that is wild and crazy about “The Conch Republic” and where you're closer to Havana, Cuba than the nearest Wal-Mart.
We went to lunch at El Siboney, a local Cuban restaurant, but we were still exhausted from our Christmas trip and the previous nights happy hour with Sailboat Bill and Michelle on Boca Chica, so we returned to our room and stayed in for the night to catch up on much needed sleep. The next day Teresa and I got up early and went to Blue Haven, a unique restaurant serving a great breakfast and really great bloody marys. Sailboat Bill and Michelle joined us an hour later and the celebration began! After Blue Haven and then Captain Tony’s and several hours at the Hogs Breath Saloon, we went back to Truman Annex for a nap and then made it back in town at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville by 9:30 pm. Strolling amidst the crowds on Duval Street, we sampled various adult beverages from street vendors and several saloons and then caught a stage show at Mallory Square before returning to Duval Street in front of Sloppy Joe’s where a “very mini” recreation of Times Square takes place. The crowd is much smaller and instead of a ball they drop a huge conch shell at the stroke of midnight but the celebration is just as wild, perhaps more so because unlike New York, alcoholic beverages in many forms flows freely here.
As the densely packed crowd began to break up, we ran into Ric and Anna, Tom and Terri who had been standing not 20 feet from us. The last time we'd seen them was back in October at the beginning of our voyage when we had dinner in their home at Patuxent River, MD. We discovered the next day that Bill and Michelle had also been right there, not ten feet away and a friend from our marina was also nearby. It may not have been New York but it was definitely so shoulder-to-shoulder thick you didn't know who might be standing close by.
The next day we lounged around our room most of the morning drinking Mimosas and then we joined Bill and Michelle for lunch at the Rooftop Inn where they were offering two-for-the-price-of-one margaritas along with lunch. Afterward, while strolling and shopping the alleys off Front Street, Ric and Anna called so we joined them at Willie T’s for an afternoon drink. Our good friends John and Denise then called from Miami to say they were driving down to see us so we lingered at Willie T’s for a lot of afternoon drinks until John drove right passed our table on Duval Street four hours later. Ric, Anna, Tom and Teri decided to call it a day so we said our goodbyes and walked with Bill and Michelle to meet John and Denise for dinner at El Meson de Pepe, a really good Cuban restaurant with a live band. After plenty of Ropas vieja, plantanos meduros, lechon asados and many mojito’s later, John and Denise drove back to Miami and the four of us stopped at the Green Parrot for “just one more drink” before finally calling an end to our 2010 celebration.
It’s now January 2nd and we’re back at Boca Chica aboard Lastdance after way too much New Years carousing and drinking in Key West. Now that our busy holiday travels and celebrations are over, we need to get down to the serious business of living aboard a boat in paradise. There's a lot of boat maintenance and repairs to get done as well as promoting my book, “Sailing with Carol” for me, and then Teresa will begin looking for a part-time job. After that, we plan to do a lot of sailing and exploring on the Florida Bay side of the Keys. Oh, and because we have friends coming down to visit, we’ll probably get into town frequently...but hell, we’re only too happy to do our share of stimulating the economy. Happy & Healthy New Year to all our family and friends!
|
||
|
||
|
||
We had a great sail and saw many dolphins but heard only one whale sighting alert by the Coast Guard but it was 50 miles behind us. Yet, as night fell and we prepared ourselves for 13 hours of chilly darkness, we wondered if we might accidentally collide with one of these magnificent creatures in the dark as they slept on the surface and if such an encounter would piss them off. Fortunately, the temperature never feel below 64 and we didn't encounter any sleeping whales but it was a long night nevertheless. We clicked off the miles and saw only a few ships but from 20 miles out at sea, we didn't begin to see lights ashore until a few hours before dawn as we closed with the coast again.
As the first dim light grew in the eastern sky, we knew the sun would soon follow and as we turned west into the channel leading to St John's River, the radio crackled with the voice of Sailboat Bill. He had heard me calling Breakaway IV and he informed us that he was at anchor in the St John's river at the mouth of the ICW. Two hours later, we rendezvoused with s/v Galena and sailed in company the remaining 36 miles to St Augustine.
As we entered the harbor, the oldest city in America unfolded before our eyes. There ahead was the famous Bridge of Lions and off to the west was Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish fort built in 1672. Bill anchored across the river but history was tugging on me and we anchored Lastdance in the shadow of the old fort. We had an incredible view of the city and we wanted to watch it all night but by then we had been awake more than 36 hours so after Bill departed after coming over in his dinghy for a drink, and with our anchor well set in the swift current, we went to sleep.
St Augustine is a beautiful town that reflects it's Spanish origins and heritage but it's also a vibrant place, full of restaurants, pubs and bars, most with local singers and entertainers. Bill joined Teresa and me for some sightseeing of the old section and then the Castillo de San Marcos. Afterwards, we hit the Tradewinds, a local Florida bar full of character and characters and we spent the late afternoon there listening to Mark Hart strum his guitar and sing tropical songs. Now, 2 days later we're still here waiting out a nasty storm system approaching from the Gulf of Mexico but we're planning to get underway again tomorrow and should be in Ft Lauderdale by Tuesday next week. Oh, we're finally in T-shirts for more than a few hours at a time...YES!
|
||
27 Nov - We departed Southport at dawn and made 7.5 knots in a rush to get to Lockwoods Folly and Shallotte inlets on a rising tide. Both of those crossing are notorious for strong cross currents and severe and frequently shifting shoals but we had no problems. We then arrived at Barefoot Landing in the early afternoon and enjoyed a nice dinner ashore in North Myrtle Beach.
The next day we made an uneventful but scenic sail/motor-sail/motor down the Waccamaw River, arriving in Georgetown, SC and found ourselves once again alongside John and Robin in s/v Breakaway IV. This is another beautiful and historic southern town but the highlight for me was meeting Dodge Morgan while we were out to dinner. Dodge was the first American sailor to sail alone, non-stop around the world and I've always been inspired by the story in his book, "The Voyage of American Promise."
Departing Georgetown, we caught a fast ebbing current which carried us down the bay at 8-knots and as we sailed passed various anchorage options along the way, it became evident that the fair current and favorable wind would enable us to make Charleston, 67 miles from Georgetown and purely by happenstance, we anchored right in front of Sailboat Bill in s/v Galena. We would have liked to spent a few days in Charleston to do some sightseeing and bar hopping but we preferred get to Beaufort, South Carolina for Thanksgiving Day. When we departed the Ashley River anchorage in the morning, Sailboat Bill was still asleep from a late night ashore of pillaging and plundering so we whispered our goodbyes as we weighed anchor and got underway. After a long day, we made it to within 12 miles of Beaufort, SC before anchoring at sunset off of Sam's Point on the Coosaw River.
Waking to a dreary, cloudy and cold day, we motored the 12 miles to beautiful Beaufort, SC, arriving at noon at Beaufort Downtown Marina. First things first, we strolled this beautiful town of which the whole downtown area is on the National Registry of Historic sites, then we went to Hemingway's, a pub/restaurant. The folks there made us feel right at home and invited us to their annual Thanksgiving Dinner for sailors.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends! Whew, what a great Thanksgiving dinner we had as the good folks at Hemingway's put together an incredible array of traditional southern Thanksgiving fare. Teresa and I sipped wine and chatted with fellow cruisers all afternoon. Oh, and we ate our way through tons of turkey, stuffing, collards, and a dozen other dishes, all prepared and served to us at no cost from the owner and staff of Hemingway's in Beaufort, SC.
We've now been underway since Oct 14th and have had almost non-stop crappy, wet and cold weather but we're still having fun. We've been generally sailing 30-50 miles a day but we spent 2 weeks in Beaufort, NC with my daughter-in-law and grandkids or we'd already be in sunny/warm Key West, Florida a week ago. Teresa has adapted to living aboard very well and is fast becoming a great sailor. Our plans are to make it to Savannah, Georgia tomorrow and then if the weather forecast holds, we'll go offshore at St Catherine's Sound and try to make it to St Mary's or St John's inlets or maybe even St Augustine's.
|
||
With my ego bruised as onlookers in restaurants gawked, he towed us off the damn little "hilly thing" and we motored to the anchorage below the bridge and joined Galena. The next day friends from s/v Breakaway IV joined us for sundowners and then Bill rowed over for a great dinner prepared by Teresa; Kielbasa, sauerkraut and potatoes. Underway again the next day, a swift current helped us make it to Southport 26 miles away in just 4 hours. Southport is a beautiful town and here we met Roger, an interesting guy who is "sailing" his unique craft to Key West. Roger is an artist on a mission so check out his website at www.earthball.org Tomorrow we're off to the Myrtle Beach area then on to Georgetown where we'll collect our mail and wait out a forecast of more bad weather. Since leaving Maryland in mid-October, we haven't had more than 2 days in a row of nice weather....Gimmee a break, we want warmmmm! |
||
This morning we departed Beaufort in drizzly cold conditions and we arrived in Mile Hammock Bay on Camp Lejeune, 44 miles away, six hours later in T-shirts. After Sailboat Bill rowed over, Teresa went aloft to repair a broken flag halyard and then we all consumed the better part of a 2-liter bottle of rum along with Keith (Eh?) from s/v Shadowfax. We're going to miss Michelle and the kids but it's good to be underway again. Right now, there is a carpet of stars that is nothing short of brillant and we're going to sip some red wine and munch on some dark chocolate on deck to enjoy the sight. Tomorrow, Wrightsville Beach! |
||
With help from Sailboat Bill who has replaced 3 of his own chainplates, Teresa and I replaced the cracked chainplate on Lastdance but we're still holed up in Beaufort, waiting for the remmants of hurricane Ida to pass before getting uinderway. Then while replacing the chainplate and doing other general maintenance, Teresa rearranged the book shelf into a cool wine cellar. I love this woman! Michelle came by with my grandkids today and after "playing" dominos and "hide in the cave" we all went up to Fish Tales (where we were married) for lunch. Rain and gale force winds are in the forecast until Friday morning so we'll probably get underway on Saturday in a 10-15 knot NE wind. Until then, it's boat chores, seeing Michelle and the grandkids and hanging out in seedy waterfront bars. |
||
7 Nov - We're still in Beaufort enjoying the mild weather and spending a lot of time at my daughter-in-law's with the grandkids. Sailboat Bill arrived on Friday and we had a pub crawl with him in town, finishing up around 0100. Our plan was to get underway on Tuesday but while recounting the previous nights fun with Bill on our dock, his watchful eye noticed a teeny-weenie bit of rust on one of the chainplates on Lastdance. For you landlubbers, the chainplates are what connect the wires (shrouds) that support the mast, to the hull. So, we'll drive up to Washington, NC tomorrow and go to the Pacific Seacraft factory and buy a new chainplate, hopefully getting it installed quickly so we can get underway. |
||
Our plan is to stay here 10 days to hang out with my daughter-in-law Michelle and the grandkids and for Teresa to take care of some dental work and business in Raleigh. After that, we're going to mosey on down the coast at a very leisurely pace until we get to Key West where we'll spend most of the winter, then sail north in the early spring, hopefully by way of the Abacos in the Bahamas. |
||
We've gone to Plan B. We got underway at 0900 under main and jib and we were soon sailing at a comfortable 6 knots in a 12-knot breeze toward
|
||
|
||
Once anchored, we sipped rum and we were joined by Bill from s/v Worthless Wench, a Pacific Seacraft 40'. Lastdance also being a Pacific Seacraft, we invited Bill aboard for drinks and discovered that he worked for Pacific Seacraft and also cruised the Exhumas, during the course of which he came to know our good frined Sailboat Bill from s/v Galena..small world huh? After a beautiful, warm and quiet night, we got underway at dawn and without even a zephyr of wind, we motored all the way to Norfolk and took a free slip at the Hampton Public Piers. There we met Jack and Stanka from s/v Kite, a beautiful Valient 40' we shared a berth with in Beaufort last fall. Teresa and I celebrated our 8-month anniversary (since meeting) with a really fantastic dinner at the Taphouse on Queens Way. The taphouse is a great pub, and what it lacks in romantic ambiance, it made up for in it's culinary delights. Today we'll visit the Virginia Air & Space Museum and IMAX to catch a 3D show on whales. After that, we'll top up our fuel and water tanks, then shift across the bay to the Norfolk Naval Station marina in order to do some boat maintenance as well as food shopping at the commissary. Our friends Kevin and Laura are coming by for a dinner of potato soup and hard crusted bread, a "tradition" we started last fall on my way south. Tomorrow...the Great Dismal Swamp Canal! |
||
|
||
Still, we're having a good time. We had dinner twice with our good friend Sailboat Bill from s/v Galena and met Capt Ed from s/v Holligan. We first encountered Ed last spring at the locks at Great bridge, VA while sailing north. Ed is a retired US Marine and has a couple of global circumnavigations under his belt as well as several trips to Hawaii, all in boats under 30'. He was even run down by a bulk carrier outside of the Panama Canal so you can imagine Ed has some sea stories to share. Right now the forecast is for things to moderate by tomorrow afternoon so we're planning to get underway by late morning and sail to an anchorage in Reedville, VA, then go on to Fishing Bay on Tuesday and hopefully Norfork on Wedsnesday. Stay tuned for more... |
||
Once settled in, we had Bill over for a dinner of venison sausage, sauerkraut and potato pancakes, lots of wine and half a bottle of rum. Tired from a long day of chilly sailing, we kicked Bill off the boat at 2300 and went to bed. Then the fun began! No...get your mind out of the gutter. The predicted high winds piped up around 0200 and the marina basin became "washing machine" choppy as waves rolled in the north facing entrance, pushed by 20-knot northeast winds that screamed like a banshee in the rigging. With a forecast of rain and 25 to 30-knot winds for the next few days, we're going to chill out here, at least until Saturday. More to follow once we get underway again. Sail on! |
||
13 Oct - Teresa drove to Raleigh today for a dental appointment and I'm finishing last minute projects and installing a new "toy," a GPS chart plotter. We're still planning to get underway Wednesday morning; first stop will be the Patuxent River about 50 miles south of here. Once there, we'll hook up with Sailboat Bill and friends Ric and Anna for a couple of days before continuing on to Norfolk, VA. A weeks worth of projects remain but only one day to do them so I'll probably finish them along the way.
Our plan is to sail to Beaufort, NC and spend a week or two with my grand kids. After that, we'll slowly sail south along the coast and on the ICW, with many stops along the way until we get to Key West where we'll stay at the Key West Naval Air Station marina which we'll use as a base for exploring and sailing. In March we plan to work our way north and then go offshore to the Bahamas, spending several weeks in the Abacos before sailing north back to Chesapeake Bay. |
