Zooming Through the Northern Exumas
We left the Exuma Land and Sea Park for places further south. Next stops: Staniel Cay, Black Point Settlement and Little Farmers Cay. Staniel Cay is particularly famous for wild swimming pigs. Yes, you read that right: wild, swimming pigs. We were anchored around the corner from the harbor at Big Major Spot. Yes, you read that right, Big Major Spot. Funny name. Our stay there was brief but enjoyable. We took the dinghy in to visit Staniel Cay “proper.” After being at the park for nearly a week with nothing around but nature (which we loved) it was actually nice to go to a place with a little restaurant on the water where we could get a sandwich and a couple of Kaliks. However, to get from the dinghy to the dock, we had to climb a ladder over a ray and a large shark. Yes, you read that right. It was a nurse shark, which everyone tells me is the friendly kind . . . uh huh . . . but he/she was quite large and proceeded to park itself right under the dinghy which made climbing the fives step ladder to get on and off the dock just a little more exciting. Apparently, people feed the sharks and the rays at the marina and they are quite tame – at least that’s what I kept telling myself. We walked around town, took advantage of a couple of small grocery stores, talked with some lovely ladies who ran each of the shops, and enjoyed stretching our legs. As we discussed which day of the week the mail boat comes in (a BIG day for each location since it brings in all shipments and supplies including the fresh produce for restaurants and grocery stores and is the lifeline for any business) the one woman laughed and said, “They don’t call us ‘out islands’ for nothing!” The islands are pretty small and sparse, but very friendly. On the way back from town, we cruised by the beach where the wild pigs hang out. Apparently many of them were napping, but two little pigs did come out to the water line. Only one was motivated enough to swim out to see what we had for her. We had taken the end of Frank’s lunch with us. Miss Piggy was very interested in the lettuce but totally turned her nose up at the leftover french fries. I figure either she was trying not to make a pig of herself or the potatoes were fried in bacon fat. She was very cute and friendly and we enjoyed her visit. I had seen pictures and heard about the pigs being big and aggressive. A couple of days later friends told us of witnessing a small boat going up to the beach in the very, very shallow water and having several pigs trying to launch themselves onto the boat! I enjoyed our mellower interaction with our little speckled friend.
Feeding the Pig in Staniel Cay
Miss Piggy and Ray
The next day we moved on to Black Point Settlement. We caught it on the day of their community BBQ. They had huge grills fired up making steaks, ribs, chicken and fish. We had a delicious meal there, caught some of the local flavor and then walked around more of the pretty little island.
Black Point Settlement Road Sign
Community barbecue at Black Point Settlement
Finally! Ice cream! It is hard to come by in these parts. Anthony and Frank partake happily.
This gives you an idea of the size of the settlement; here’s the government office!
Annette and Ems in Black Point
Here’s an interesting display of driftwood in someone’s front yard.
A cottage on Black Point. Love this evergreen!
Sunset at anchor
Although it might have been nice to stay in Black Point for another day, we kept our visit short because of an approaching front that was predicted to have some pretty snarly west winds. The wind direction is very, very important for where to anchor the boat. Picking the wrong spot can mean a) worrying about the anchor all night because it is rough, and b) getting a bad night’s sleep due to the boat rocking and rolling all night. So off we went to find better protection at Little Farmers Cay. The anchorage and mooring field are situated between a couple of land masses, so it is a fairly settled anchorage. There is a big festival in February here, so we were there at a quiet time – which was kind of cool. It felt like we had a private island! And at this point we were back to our fleet of three traveling together. Our first night we rode in to the little harbor and enjoyed dinner at Ocean Cabin. Terry, the proprietor, was an interesting character and his wife was the evening’s chef. We ended up being the only people in the place for dinner! We enjoyed great conversations and Terry joined us for a memorable after dinner chat. The next day we went back in to the second of two places to get a meal on the island: Farmers Cay Yacht Club. Roosevelt was the owner and our host for the day, and again, we were the only people there! It was a leisurely, mid afternoon meal and we enjoyed walking the docks and enjoying the warmth of the sunshine as our made to order dinners were prepared with love. Roosevelt brought our conch fritters out to the dock for us to munch on while we waited for dinner. The wait was well worth it! Roosevelt was a gracious and delightful host. And we enjoyed the view of our boats in the harbor. Little Farmers has the Five F Festival (Farmer’s First Friday in February Festival) at which time 100 – 200 boats could be anchored up there. It was hard to picture after our peaceful, low key, private tour of the area. I think I might like visiting it when it’s quiet better!
Walking around Little Farmers Cay
Sign listing the hours at Ocean Cabin
frank and Roosevelt at the yacht Club
Tiki Hut at the Yacht Club
The ladies on the dock with our boats in the background: Annette, Nancy and Ems
Frank looking pretty content on his piling
Kind of looks like a Kalik commercial, doesn’t it? Anthony posed this picture with Eleanor Q in the background. Very artistic.
Ron and Annette enjoying the view and the sunshine. See, we had long sleeves on. We had a little chill. We needed the sun! Nope, not getting any sympathy, are we?
Don’t Nancy and Frank look like siblings in this picture?
Watching a seaplane overhead while at anchor
After our two days there, it was time to get on down the road to George Town, our planned southernmost point in our travels and a place we had heard and read so much about . . . the key word in that sentence being “planned”. You read that right. Stay tuned to see if that’s where our southernmost point turned out to be or not!
Hello Highborn: Into the Exumas
A funny thing has happened since this blog was started last spring: it became winter. Posting pictures of water and sailing and swimming during the summer has people saying, “Ah, isn’t that nice.” “Oh, look at that.” So let’s just put this on the table here and now . . . you are about to see pictures of blue water and swimming and sailing. And you may be one of the people sitting in a part of the country having record low temperatures and snow, and for that, we are very, very sorry for you. Really – we feel just terrible. So if you’re going to be totally disgusted with us when you see the blue water and snorkeling, then just stop reading now. You have been warned. There are a few pictures thrown in with us wearing jackets, just for good measure. Why, as this is being written, it’s 66 degrees with a wind chill of 62! So it’s not all 80 degrees and sunny, okay. We’re suffering too. We had to put long sleeves on this evening!
With that out of the way, put the winter aside for a few minutes and come to the Exumas with us. We left Nassau and did the 35ish mile trip to Highborn Cay (pronounced “key”). There was a little wind vs. wave action going on, so there there was a chop to the water and some pretty good sea spray happening over the deck. It was also our first day of using “VPR” or Visual Piloting Rules which you need to do a lot through the Bahamas. The note on the chart says, “VPR apply. Good weather, sunlight, bottom reading, and piloting skills required.” In short, that means, “Watch out for the coral reefs.” Watching the color changes in the water is a big clue, and down here the water is SO clear that it is pretty easy to see the changes. Different shades of blue indicate different depths. What took a little getting used to is that, if you can see the darker brown areas that are the coral, it looks like it’s really, really shallow! Very unnerving. We were learning that the coral can be 10 – 15 under your keel and you’re still going to be able to see it in the clear water; it’s only going to FEEL like you’re about to hit it. So one part of our trip to Highborn went across what is called the Yellow Bank where you really do need to have someone perched to watch out for coral heads.
Frank on the bow watching for coral heads while Ems is at the helm.
Highborn was just an overnight stop, but an important night: we were traveling with Magnolia and it was Anthony’s birthday! We enjoyed dinner on Eleanor Q and Annette brought the birthday brownies.
Anthony and Annette silhouetted with Magnolia sitting in the background at sunset.
There is a common occurrence at sunset: the blowing of the conch shell. It is not uncommon to hear a conch shell at sunset, a sound which very much resembles a note being played on a french horn. On one of our early vacations to the British Virgin Islands when we chartered a boat for a week, Frank bought me my own conch shell. I will digress and briefly tell you the story of how that came to be. On that vacation, we went to a place with live music and the very entertaining performer had various ways to engage the audience. One activity was a conch blowing contest to see who could hold the longest, continuous note. Being a former tuba player (yeah, you can laugh) I thought I had a good shot. Turns out I was out of practice and didn’t have a particularly good showing. That stuck in my craw and I vowed to come back another year and compete again (not that I’m competitive or anything). And with that in mind, Frank surprised me with my own conch shell. The following year, we repeated parts of that vacation and went to see the same performer who was doing the same schtick. This time I was ready. I was singing in a college/community choir . . . I had been doing my breathing exercises . . . I was ready. And I made sure I was last in line. Moral of the story, the first prize bottle of rum went home with me. And so, the conch shell travels with me on this adventure and comes out at sunset. Additional side note: we have also used it at various services over the years, too. When I was working as the organist/choir director for Pastor Rich in Illinois, he said it sounded like a shofar – pronounced SHOW-far – which is an instrument made from a ram’s horn and was used to announce special holidays, mostly in the Jewish faith. So we opened the Easter services with the conch blowing. Mid-morning when Frank asked me how the services were going, I couldn’t help but answer, “Shofar, sho good!”
Ems participating in the sunset tradition.
Okay, enough about the conch shell – back to the Exumas. The next stop was Shroud Cay. We spent two nights there and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the great places to explore by dinghy. This was our first stop in the Exuma Land and Sea Park – an amazing stretch in the Exumas that helps to preserve these wild places. It is a “no take” zone meaning that you don’t fish or collect shells. And there is no place to deposit trash. So what comes into the park with you leaves with you, and you don’t take anything from the park out. The motto is, “Take only pictures; leave only footprints.”
There were a couple of little showers lurking around the area and this rainbow formed right by Magnolia.
We took a short ride to a nearly deserted beach . . . there was really no one to be seen! We prepared to anchor the dinghy to the beach . . .
Doh! Hate when this happens! He eventually got it straightened out.
We were thoroughly enjoying our first few days in the Exumas! Sometimes you just gotta try a selfie – the newly added word to the US vocabulary in 2013. Sportin’ the hats!
The next day we set out to explore the creeks on the island. After a very long ride with some very shallow sections where we had to row or pole the dinghy (and a couple of places where we had to drag the dinghy!) we made it to the Sound side of the island (the Exuma Sound – basically the ocean or western side of the island). We discovered the most outstanding beach. This is one of those obnoxious blue water pictures I warned you about.
What a beautiful place to walk . . . so many shades of blue.
We met up with the crew of Magnolia and Mandala for a swim. What a wonderful afternoon.
Next we headed to a place Frank has read about, day dreamed about, and visualized on those nights that he couldn’t sleep. We were on our way to Warderick Wells, also in the park. I would have to agree with him – that has got to be one of the prettiest places on earth. It has an iconic horseshoe shaped mooring field. And we got one of the prettiest spots of all, right in front of the park office. It was another really cool moment for us both, but especially for Frank. Once we got in there, it was hard to leave, and we stayed for five days. There we enjoyed the hiking trails, the snorkeling and just hanging out with our (now expanded) water family of Magnolia and Mandala. We loved every day there.
Eleanor Q in her spot in the iconic mooring field.
Pretty sure Eleanor Q likes being parked here!
Hiking the Trails at Warderick Wells
We saw the sign and followed it. I don’t think that meant WE were the blow holes . . .
Frank looking out over the sound
One of the must see sights at Warderick Wells is Boo Boo Hill. Follow the trail up to the top of a bluff for a gorgeous view of the island, but also to see the offerings that have been left at Boo Boo Hill. So here’s the tale of the hill . . . It is said that, back in the 1800s, a ship load of missionaries wrecked on the island and met an untimely demise. It is also said that on the full moon you can sometimes here their spirits singing hymns. It is another tradition that when you visit Boo Boo Hill you bring a piece of driftwood with your boat name carved in it to leave as an offering. It is the one exception to the “don’t leave anything behind” rule. I must confess, we came woefully unprepared and will have to remedy that for our next visit.
On the trail to Boo Boo Hill
Anthony looking over the momentos left behind on Boo Boo Hill.
Peace and Happiness indeed
The next night was, indeed, the full moon. I suggested to Annette that we should hide somewhere after dark and start singing, “Nearer My God to Thee” and see if we could freak anybody out. Between that remark and going empty handed to Boo Boo Hill, we got ours. At about 9:00pm, the moon rose on one side of the boat and the lightning started flashing on the other side. Light rumbles of thunder could be heard in the distance. A couple of hours later, the heavens opened up and we had rain upon rain upon rain for hours that night – HEAVY rain. If you had a leak in your boat, you found out where it was that night. And then I started having very strange nightmares for most of the night. In the morning, I declared that the next time we went to Boo Boo Hill we were going to be sure to leave something with “Eleanor Q” on it and add it to the pile. Not that I’m superstitious . . . Frank and I both agree that it’s bad luck to be superstitious. But all the same, I’ll just think of it as insurance. I gotta say – it was a pretty cool full moon night! Spooky!
Full Moon at Warderick Wells
During our visit, we snorkeled for hours! Now keep in mind, I grew up in West by God Virginia. There’s not a lot of snorkeling there. This stuff is ALL a stretch for me . . . but my friends Ron and Nancy on Mandala were intent on getting me out there. And so the six of us set out to snorkel around the park. It was AMAZING and I loved it, much to my (and Frank’s) surprise and delight. It was only my second or third time and it was pretty cool.
He’s so cool looking in his wet suit! This is a guy who just looks like he grew up around the water.
Nancy took this picture of Ron and Annette about to jump in!
One of Nancy’s pictures from the coral garden in the park during our expedition. Beautiful fish and coral!
For those of you who have known me just recently, here I am in my wet suit coming back from snorkeling. To those of you who have known me from a tender age, here I am in my wet suit coming back from snorkeling . . . BA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!
One of our other favorite activities while at Warderick Wells were evening jam sessions! Ron also plays the guitar, so we’d pull out all the musical instruments we had on board and try to make some music. One night on Mandala we even attempted to do a group sing!! I don’t know if that had any influence on the catamaran next door taking off early the next morning or not, but I have my suspicions.
Ron playing at sunset.
Here we are attempting to sing! Not ready for prime time, but having lots of fun.
After four days, it was time to move on. If that place had better internet, we might never leave. But we were ready to get into a little bit of civilization again, too. There are no restaurants, no shopping, no services in the park . . . and for the better part of a week, that was pretty okay with us. Time to go to Staniel Cay . . . but that will be the next post.
Looking out over Warderick Wells . . . sad to leave.
Crossing to Nassau
We had been in Bimini for almost a week waiting for the “weather window” to go to Nassau. Well, the window came. The trip to Nassau is about 100 miles requiring an overnight passage – not typically one of my favorite things to do, so I was looking forward to getting this behind us. But this passage turned out differently from the others because we ended up getting absorbed into a “fleet” of boats making the same passage. They were a group of Canadian boats and they called themselves “The B to B Fleet.” I’m not certain, but I think that stood for “Biscayne to Bahamas” since they met in No Name Harbor in Biscayne Bay. There were about 10 boats total, and the fleet captain would hold a check in every hour on the radio. Each boat would give a report of their position and conditions. We were all within a mile and a half of each other. Frank and I did 3 hour shifts – longer than on day trips – so that the other person has the hopes of catching a real nap. It was a big graduation day for me because he felt comfortable enough to go down below for 3 hours at a time with me at the helm overnight. That was a big deal. Anyway, the comfort of having a group of boats around and looking forward to the hourly check-ins was helpful. I got the 1am – 4am shift. Never in my life have I seen that many stars. Other noteworthy things about the crossing: the first part goes over the Bahama bank which is hours of going through water that is 10 – 15 feet deep – shallow. Then you get to the Northwest Passage into the “Tongue of the Ocean.” That’s where you transition from the shallow water of the bank, through a cut and into the open water. Frank took us through that part, but I had to stay up long enough to watch our depth finder go crazy. We were looking at 20 feet of water, and then the numbers started soaring up . . . and then it did that blinking thing when it can’t compute any more. The ocean drops off to a MILE deep. A mile. What kind of glacier did that architecture? A poignant moment came at the early dawn check in when our friends on Mandala shared with the group that their on board 18-year old cat passed away during the crossing. They found it fitting to have a burial at sea at the Tongue of the Ocean in the mile deep water. The air waves got strangely silent as I think a couple of tears were shed throughout the fleet.
Leaving Bimini as taken by Time and Tide
Mandala in the sunset.
Sunrise approaching Nassau with Magnolia in the dawn
After a quiet night of listening to good music and watching the stars and going through a couple of early morning rain showers, at 8am we were pulling safely into Nassau Harbor (after radioing Harbor Control and requesting permission to enter, of course.) We slid by cruise ships and mail boats and ferries to get to our home for the next few days at Nassau Yacht Haven.
Nassau Harbor
Traffic in the Harbor
Our first day was catching up on some sleep and doing laundry. The second day was spent walking around Potters Cay by the docks and then across the bridge to Paradise Island area and the Atlantis Casino. You know we had to drop by there and see if we knew anybody working. We did not.
Frank checking out the fishing boats of course.
Walking around Potters Cay
Bridge to Paradise Island
Mega Yachts in the marina at the Atlantis.
Atlantis Casino Complex
But our next day was the day I had been waiting for and the main reason to pass through Nassau: to visit my friend Mr. Rolle.
I met my friend Mr. Rolle on an airplane about ten years ago. Mr. Rolle and his wife and much of his family are Nassau residents. He and his wife were flying back from the midwest and their flight had been canceled. They were put on the last two seats on the plane I was on and his seat was right beside mine. He was sweet and engaging and we shared a background and love for church music which made for easy conversation. We were friends by the end of the flight and exchanged information and promised to keep in touch. Before we got off the plane, Mr. Rolle sang “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again” to me. And then we became pen pals and he would periodically phone to check on me and to let me know he was keeping me in his prayers. He was much better at keeping in touch than me, but we kept the thread going over the years. And then when I said that we’d be sailing to the Bahamas, we hatched the plan to set up a visit.
So I was very excited when Mr. Rolle called me to say that his daughter, Sharrie, would be driving and they would come pick Frank and I up at 10am at the marina, show us the island, take us to the house for lunch and then return us later in the afternoon. I was so excited when the car pulled up and I saw Mr. Rolle looking nearly the same as he did ten years ago! The four of us took off and Sharrie was a great tour guide showing us the sights of the island that we would never have been able to see by foot. We saw neighborhoods and developments and schools and churches, and the town center and then stopped by “The Caves” for a look around.
Hanging with Sharrie and Mr. Rolle
The Caves – The Buffy Flower Bat lives in this cave. I did not call out to the Buffies. I just took the sign at its word and called it a day.
Next we went to their home for a delicious lunch and I finally got to meet Mrs. Rolle! They filled us with wonderful food and we enjoyed fun conversation. I was very touched that two of the pictures that I had sent to Mr. Rolle had made it to his bookshelf of family photos: a picture of Frank and I and a picture of my father and I. A little more history: Mr. Rolle sent me a copy of his CD of hymns, and I told him the story of listening to his CD in the car when I drove home from Princeton after my father died. So I had to catch a little breath when I saw the picture of me and my dad there. Mrs. Rolle was very warm, gracious and beautiful.
Mr. and Mrs. Rolle. I borrowed this picture from a beautiful article in their church magazine that spotlighted Mr. and Mrs. Rolle.
She/they have raised a large flock of children and she is a retired school teacher. And they have quite the flock of grandchildren as well! Their children hold various jobs in the community, were raised to volunteer their time to help those less fortunate, and are all very active in their churches. Like her father, Mr. Rolle’s daughter, Nadia, is a great pen pal and has recently been the family communicator with me since I could send her emails along the way to update her of our plans. So I was so thrilled that Nadia was able to zip home on her lunch break from the high school where she teaches so we could meet face to face, even though it was only long enough for a quick hello and a hug! So shout out to my new Facebook friends Nadia and Sharrie!
Then we stopped by the Rolle’s home church (by my request!) and Mr. Rolle and I spent a few minutes having an impromptu hymn jam session in the church. (Can you use those two terms in the same sentence?) He sang and I would try to fill in with some accompaniment behind him on the piano. I could have done that for hours. What a smooth, crooner’s voice! Frank looked on and smiled. He knew I was having a good time!
Mr. Rolle and I jammin’
And then it was time to go back. I was so happy to get to see my friend and to get to know more of the Rolle family, and I look forward to our sailing travels taking us through Nassau again in the future so we can visit some more.
And so, my friends, that’s how we roll in Nassau.
Florida – The Second Half
We are still in south Florida, poised and ready to make our jump to the Bahamas at the first weather window. More about that later. First, a little about our last few stops in Florida and Christmas.
Vero Beach was where we left off. I remember being in Vero Beach as a child when my uncle lived there, but I couldn’t tell you much about it. It is an EXTREMELY popular place for cruisers, and the mooring field at the City Marina can be a very crowded place. In the height of the season, boats may be rafted up three across on the mooring balls. We did, indeed, need to raft up, as seen in the picture below.
Magnolia rafted with another boat on the mooring ball behind us.
We planned to spend a couple of nights in Vero, so the ladies took advantage and suggested that the chicks head one direction and the guys head the other way for the day! Understand, we love our partners very much, but it is a LOT of together time on the boat, so all of us found it very appealing to go hang with “one of our own” for an afternoon! While prepping for this trip, we did a lot of reading by people who have done this before. One of the most highly recommended books to have on board is Men Are From Mars – Women Are From Venus. Of the whole Mars-Venus book series, someone should write the “Mars and Venus Living on a Boat” version. It was classic: Annette and I decided to go into town by the beach, walk the shops and have a ladies lunch out. The guys went to, like, the hardware store and shopping for electronics at Target and some other guy stuff. The ladies talked about family and people and whatever popped into our heads. We took our time . . . we didn’t rush. We lollygagged, in fact. When we told each other stories, we didn’t edit them down to the headlines . . . we elaborated. We happily went into detail! The guys probably scratched and grunted and exchanged a few very pertinent stories, but I would lay odds that none of the stories lasted more than 4 minutes. They got back an hour ahead of us and had the generators running on the boats while finding something that needed to be fixed. Moral of the story: everybody was happy at the end of the day from having time on their own planet. We keep reminding ourselves that it is okay – more than okay, it is downright HEALTHY – to get time apart on occasion. And the nice thing is that at the end of an afternoon like that, we’re happy to be back together again.
Annette looking out at the beach during our ladies day outing.
The crews of Eleanor Q, Magnolia and Journey out to dinner in Vero Beach
We went to a cruisers cocktail reception and then six of us went to dinner in town. Annette and Anthony introduced us to a very nice couple on Journey who they had met a few weeks earlier. They had just begun their cruising days in November and we enjoyed sharing stories and plans over dinner.
We enjoyed Vero and wished we had more time to spend there, but we needed to keep progressing south. It was onward to Lake Worth/Palm Beach area. It was a crowded anchorage and we found a spot parked outside of some nice real estate. Dinner was on Magnolia and we had a chance to meet their good friends and mentors Greg and Marie who we had heard so much about. Next morning, up and out early. Although we had hoped to get off of the ICW and go outside, again the weather prevented us from doing that. The winds were just too snarly on the ocean. But we were determined to keep making tracks, so we prepared ourselves for what the day was going to bring: eighteen draw bridges. EIGHTEEN! Some bridges open on request, but a number of these bridges were on a schedule. It is far more complicated than you would think about to time your arrival at a bridge. If you’re too early, you have to do a lot of tricky maneuvering to “station keep” in front of the bridge, and when there are a lot of other boats, it gets more interesting. If you slow down too much so as not to arrive too early, you risk running into a current you didn’t expect and not making it to the bridge on time at all. It is pretty high stress and a very high level of focus is necessary. Frank does most of the time at the helm for this, but I needed to start getting more adept at the station keeping myself – he can’t be at the helm for 9 hours straight! So I took my turn on a couple of bridges as well, learning the fine art of timing our arrival and keeping the boat in place in spite of the current. We had all agreed that we would get as far as we could until we got tired, or we’d go to Ft. Lauderdale, whichever came first. We did, in fact, make it clear to Lauderdale that day. Frank and I agreed that it was a cool accomplishment, an interesting (and scenic) day, and one that we would always remember. But we also agreed that we did not EVER need to do that one again! Eighteen bridges. Eighteen. EIGHTEEN! We were so exhausted when we got in. And the person not at the helm doesn’t get much down time, because that person’s job is to check to see when and where the next bridge is, to know what time it opens, and often to call by cell to confirm this because there have been some changes to the schedules since our guide book was published. And every bridge tender has to be contacted by radio by every boat. Just listening to the radio chatter that day was tiring! I must say that only two of the eighteen bridge tenders were total grumps; the rest were quite congenial. There is an art to being a good tender.
Frank stuck his big Navy hat on my little head just to crack himself up. Seriously, he has a really big head. It looks normal enough, but go try to find him a hat that fits! It’s BIG!
You never know what you’ll see. Here’s a house on a barge. “What’s your address?” “Red 40.”
The further south we went, the more expensive the boats and the houses got.
Ah yes . . . a reminder that it’s the Christmas season! Almost forgot . . .
As we passed some of the golf courses, we looked longingly and tried to remember the last time either one of us played the game.
West Palm Beach area . . .
Boat eye candy everywhere!
Red Christmas balls adorn this boat.
One of the eighteen bridges!
Happy crew on the Eleanor Q towards the end of a long day. Picture by Magnolia.
And finally settled at anchor that evening.
After anchoring for the first night, we moved right next door into the Coral Ridge Yacht Club to stay through the holiday. We would use this as our last opportunity to really do final preparations and provisioning for our trip to the Bahamas, plus we would enjoy the holiday.
Coral Ridge Yacht Club – a very hospitable place!
The four of us put on “real” clothes and went out for Christmas Eve dinner.
Frank was trying to take a nice picture of Annette and Anthony . . . and I had the urge to photo bomb them. Couldn’t help myself.
Walking to dinner . . . lights on the sides of the buildings.
We enjoyed dinner at the Seasons 52.
This is the first Christmas that Frank hasn’t been employed, and he has always made a point of making an appearance at work to show support for those who have to work the holiday. Well, old habits die hard, because he kept thanking all the employees for working on Christmas Eve and asking them what time they were getting off of work and making a big fuss over all of them. I had to remind him a couple of times that he was off duty and that this wasn’t the restaurant in the casino!! It was very sweet.
So what did we do on Christmas Day?
This . . .
And this . . .
And this!!
Magnolia hosted Christmas dinner and we had another nice night of camaraderie, good food, and good fun. We were all missing our families, but we made the best of the situation and had a nice day together!
The next day was a work day . . . laundry, grocery shopping and boat maintenance! We did a good job of dividing and conquering chores that day.
Back from the grocery store.
And then Friday, we took off for Miami. Still had to go through one more bridge before getting to the ocean to travel down to the Miami area. We can’t take the ICW to there (as is the case for most sail boats) because there is one fixed bridge that was built some time ago that is lower than the height of our mast. It was a good day on the water and . . . gasp . . . we saw those white things that flap in the breeze come out and our engine was turned off for a couple hours of the trip! Yahoo!
More real estate gawking.
Not too shabby.
Sails up on the way to Miami!
Frank enjoying the sail!
Magnolia caught this picture of us in front of the Miami coastline.
We got into Miami and anchored in Sunset Lake for a couple of nights. From there we could take the dinghy in and explore Miami Beach/South Beach area!
I’d rather be on Eleanor Q than on one of these cruise ships! (Picture by Magnolia)
The view in Sunset Lake
The four of us took a dinghy ride to walk into town.
Walking around South Beach for the afternoon.
Espanola Way in Miami Beach where we enjoyed a delicious Cuban meal.
The guys conferring on Chris Parker’s latest weather forecast for passage to the Bahamas.
Today we moved to an anchorage south of Miami and closer to the ocean where we will leave tomorrow for our big adventure to the Bahamas! We are parked outside of No Name Harbor . . . I swear, that’s its name! Anchor up at first light and off to Bimini! It is only 40 some miles as the crow flies, but the Gulf Stream will pull us north for a while and our path will essentially be in the shape of an “S”. Tomorrow we will try to hustle to the local phone office to set up new phone numbers while we are in the Bahamas and to get a mobile WiFi unit hooked up. Our US phones are not usable in the Bahamas, so our current phone numbers will be useless for the next few months! We are hoping that we will be happily surprised by the amount of connectivity we’ll be able to have, but only time will tell! Wish us luck! New Years in Bimini, here we come!
Magnolia sitting ready in the anchorage for our departure tomorrow morning.
Florida, Warm Florida
All we can say is “Ahhhhhhh…” Yes, people, after months of listening to us WHINE about being cold in Maine this summer and being cold going south this fall, it appears as though we may cease and desist with the whining . . . we are warming up!
In our last post, we had made it to Florida. We left Georgia via St. Simon’s inlet and went “outside” into the big old ocean to make our last get out of the state of Georgia. It was a nice day and things were going so well that we skipped the inlet at St. Mary’s, Georgia and kept right on going to the inlet at Jacksonville, Florida instead.
Although this looks like a picture of Eleanor Q at first glance, it is not! It is “Slow Waltz,” our little sister ship – a Gozzard 37′.
A glimpse of a sandy beach on the way in to Jacksonville
We had an interesting occurance in Jacksonville – we briefly ran aground. After receiving some less than accurate information about the water depth at one of the two free city walls in Jacksonville, we ran hard aground on our approach. Frank was at the helm and I was poised at the ready to loop a line around one of the cleats when we just stopped. We couldn’t have been more than 15 feet from the wall! No panic. Frank came up on the bow and spent a few minutes trying to lasso one of the cleats, which he did. So there were two bits of good news: 1) We knew the tide would start coming back up in about 30 minutes, and 2) we had a line on the cleat, so we weren’t going anywhere. So . . . wait we did. With each little inch the tide gave us, we pulled in a little closer. Finally the tide came up enough to lift us just off the bottom and we pulled up to the wall. We did that long enough to assess that we did not want to stay there overnight since we’d just end up hard aground again at the next low tide! We pulled around to the other free wall with deeper water and got the last parking space of the night. Once we got settled in, it was a great place to tie up and we chatted with very nice fellow boaters.
Dawn at the Jacksonville City Wall
Sunrise at the Jacksonville City Wall
After a short night, we were off and running again the next day. After all . . . we were still trying hard to get further south!
Next stop: St. Augustine. We really enjoyed the town and found a terrific marina to stay at within walking distance of town and all it had to offer. We found good restaurants and really good music.
Walking through St. Augustine
First stop on our first evening: a wine bar with Anthony and Annette. And we picked up a friend or two along the way!
Then we found some great live music in St. Augustine – acoustic guitar and vocals . . . outstanding! Annette listening intently.
A reminder that Christmas is coming . . . Christmas trees for sale in a palm tree lined lot.
Frank was able to reconnect with a high school class mate who lives and works in St. Augustine now. John was a delightful host as we visited the restaurant where he works . . . a piano bar and restaurant with great food and music. Now if only I had remembered to take a picture of the two of them together!!! Argh. Nice seeing you, John! Magnolia’s crew, once again, met up with us there and then, after dinner – well the picture says it all!
Of course . . . ICE CREAM!
Frank and I knew that we wanted to fly back up to NJ some time in December to see our families before the holidays. We couldn’t plan it very far in advance because we needed to feel our way through the logistics of leaving the boat parked in Florida for a week. We had to find a place that was reasonably priced and where we felt secure leaving the boat. Hidden Harbor Marina was the perfect place, and so we quickly made some travel arrangements and buzzed up to NJ for a few days. We got there just in time for the first major snow of the season. Ugh. But we were thrilled to see some family!
MaryMarie got to hang with Mama and sister Christine!
I think we both felt a little disoriented dropping in to our “other” life for a week. One of the odd things for me was putting on “real” clothes!
The view at takeoff.
The day we were to fly back to Florida it started snowing again, and our day started with our first flight out of Philly being canceled. Fortunately, we were able to do some finagling and managed to end up back on the boat by the end of the day as planned; we just didn’t take the exact route we had planned!
Back in Florida, we took one more day in St. Augustine to do some much needed boat chores and to start provisioning for our trip to the Bahamas. Certain things are not as accessible in the Bahamas, and when you find them, it’s expensive, so it is advisable to stock up on supplies before going over. After being parked in the same spot for more than a week, it was time for Eleanor Q to move on! Next big stop: Daytona!!
Pelicans watching us make our way through one of the bridges.
The last bridge before our stop in Daytona.
Florida in December
Daytona
Ems has some very dear friends who live in the Daytona area! A part of the gang from Bethlehem, PA were reunited! So fun to see my peeps from Pennsylvania. We had a great day of walking downtown Daytona, having lunch and hanging out on the boat . . . our first REALLY warm day!
Downtown Daytona
Reunited with Anne, Bob and Leigh!
Being silly for the camera in front of Leigh’s old work place! Ironic that Anne and Leigh are both originally from Florida, moved to PA for a period of time, and then ended up back down here about 30 minutes apart from each other.
They introduced me to Angell & Phelps candies. Don’t laugh, the chocolate covered bacon is AMAZING! I had to get some.
Christmas lights on the Halifax River Yacht Club
The further into December we went, the more boats we saw lit up for Christmas!
We enjoyed the first taste of some truly warm days in Daytona . . . and we were craving more! So after a very nice stay in Daytona, it was time for us to continue the trek south. We started peddling hard again, anchoring overnight in Titusville, stopping briefly in Melbourne where we met up with Magnolia again, and then heading on down to our next stop, Vero Beach.
Vero Beach is an extremely popular stop for the cruising community, and many end up staying longer than they anticipated! There’s also a number of cruisers who have ended up moving to Vero, thus earning it the nickname, “Velcro Beach,” since people seem to get stuck there. We enjoyed our two nights and also had to resist the urge to stay a little longer, but resist we did.
I’ll stop for now, but will give you a preview of the next post which will come up shortly: More on Vero Beach, Palm Beach, and the 18 bridge day to Ft. Lauderdale where we are spending Christmas with Magnolia.
On that note we’ll say Merry Christmas to one and all!!
Migrating South Fast: South Carolina and Georgia
This is the most woefully behind I have ever gotten on the blog, so I will tell you a few tales, share a bunch of pictures and try to efficiently bring you up to date. I’ll start at the the end of the story, first. Eleanor Q is currently parked in St. Augustine, Florida. That means we have passed through South Carolina and Georgia since last you heard from us! The headlines:
1) We have spent almost all of that time continuing down the Intracoastal Waterway. I refer to this as the “river boat cruise” portion of the trip – that is very much what it feels like. Through those travels, we’ve seen the different personalities of the waterway come out. South Carolina had golf courses and condos as well as some wilderness areas. Georgia became twisty and winding, but had some spectacularly scenic and quiet anchorages . . . it was generally less inhabited. Florida started showing areas with very expensive homes with docks and lots of palm trees. We have enjoyed it all. However, we have about frozen our tooshies off, too! It has definitely been fall cruising.
2) The two most note-worthy stops along the way were Charleston, South Carolina where we spent time with long-time friends of Frank’s who are now wonderful, new friends of mine as well.
3) The second note-worthy stop was Hilton Head, South Carolina over Thanksgiving. There we met up with our friends on Magnolia and spent a wonderful holiday together. We refer to Annette and Anthony as our water family.
So let’s get a little caught up.
Golf Courses along the ICW in South Carolina.
Ems at the helm on the way to Georgetown, SC.
An iconic image from Georgetown, SC
We stopped in Georgetown, SC for a few days to escape a cold snap . . . two nights in the low 30s. When it’s that cold, we make a point of being in a marina so we can be plugged in to shore power and run our forced air heat through the night (something that the batteries alone would not be able to do). Although we have spent many chilly nights at anchor – the record low temperature in our bunk in the morning was 51 with the outside temperature of about 45 – getting into the low 30s is totally pushing it. We can stay warm throughout a chilly evening at anchor by cooking and lighting the propane stove in our “saloon” – the nautical term for living room – but we do not sleep with propane running overnight. SO – that brings us back to Georgetown! Many cruisers love it. It is a convenient walk into the downtown area from the harbor and there are shops, restaurants and nice neighborhoods. But it is also rather industrial and I can’t say we found it to be the most warm and fuzzy place we’ve been. Wouldn’t rush back, but glad we saw it once. They suffered a rather devastating fire this summer which took out a block of downtown, but there is still LOTS of thriving downtown area and they are most certainly open for business.
The portion of town that burnt down . . .
One of the many thriving restaurants in town.
The day we arrived it was about 70 degrees, so Frank enjoyed an ice cream cone before the cold snap hit! Of course.
The “bones” of the Browns Ferry Vessel, the oldest know colonial vessel, found in the river near Georgetown . . . now preserved in the Rice Musuem.
The next day got very cold as predicted, so we went seeking things to do inside. Some of you know, we are not the world’s best “museum people.” We feel like we should be better at it . . . we want to learn more about the places we’re visiting . . . and so, after hearing many nice things about the Rice Museum, we thought we’d give it a try. Yes, that is a museum about rice. Georgetown area was a huge rice supplier in the 1800s. I found the museum moderately interesting, although it felt a little bit like a training session at work that you didn’t really want to be in. I think Frank felt that the visit was an hour of his life that he’ll never get back. But it was warm inside!
We met lots of nice people in the marina and had dinner with one couple that we had met before in Morehead City, so it was a congenial visit. We also picked up some wonderful fresh shrimp and oysters while there. But then it was time to move on.
Another nice day on the ICW.
We anchored at Awendaw Creek and met up with Magnolia. This was a halfway point to Charleston.
Anthony and Annette aboard Magnolia had us over for burgers on the grill!
Leaving for Charleston at dawn.
So here are a couple of noteworthy points from the pictures above:
1) Sunset happens a LOT earlier! Sunrise happens a LOT later! Duh, Mary Marie, you say! Yes, you have all been noticing that in your respective regions. Here’s what it means on the boat . . . a lot less travel hours in the day. Also, the ICW in the southern states can be very, very shallow in some areas, so we have to do far more strategic planning around what time high and low tides are, lined up with the “problem areas” that have shoaled up. There are some sections you just do not want to pass over at low tide. We find we are spending many more hours coordinating our travel plans with all these factors in mind. That has meant many early, early morning departures.
2) That leads to another noteworthy point in the above picture: Because we were leaving at the crack of dawn, Frank had worked very hard to maintain his night vision when we got up. That means using the red overhead lights instead of the white ones (standard in all boats for that very reason) and turning the brightness level down on all the equipment screens. That means that when we get behind the wheel and it’s still pretty dark, our eyes are still adjusted to the dark and we can see better. And then some knucklehead goes and forgets to turn the flash off on the camera and flashes it in your face. (Knucklehead = Ems). Oooops. It was an accident! Thankfully he had a good sense of humor about it – mostly because the sun was coming up fast.
Then we were off to Charleston. Let me clarify – the “other” Charleston. Understand, I grew up in Charleston, WV which will always be Charleston #1 to me. We had friends expecting us! But not so fast! Just as we got into Charleston Harbor (which is quite big), we saw a rubber skiff (boat) approaching. Then I saw the blue light. Yup, it was the Coast Guard pulling us over. It’s like getting pulled over on the road by the police. We were going to be boarded. Here’s what that means: every boater knows that at some point in life, the coast guard will board you. They randomly stop boats and get on to inspect them to make sure they are in compliance with documentation and safety equipment . You show your ID, they take about 30 – 40 minutes walking through the boat with you and asking for all your papers and ID, making sure you have the proper number of life vests, fire extinguishers and various other equipment that are required for you to be legally operating on the water. We happily passed our inspection. While the young man from the Coast Guard was walking around with Frank, the young woman from Department of Natural Resources who came on board stayed up in the cockpit with me while I idled the boat around the harbor during the inspection. She kept saying, “you can continue on towards your destination – our skiff will follow you.” We were very close to our destination, so I didn’t go very far very fast. When the young man completed our inspection and gave us the all clear, they turned around to signal to the skiff to come pick them back up. Hmmmm . . . no skiff! Where did the skiff go?? They radioed their colleague. The engine on the skiff had died!! Awkward. The Coast Guard dude basically said, ‘This is very embarrassing, but our skiff is dead in the water.” We graciously offered to give them a ride back to the motorless skiff, which they sheepishly accepted. We even offered to tow them back in, but they assured us that, HA, they could call the Coast Guard to come get them! They thanked us profusely and said that many people are pretty resentful about being boarded and would have suggested they swim back to the boat! We don’t look at the boardings like that and are very respectful. And so . . . we rescued the Coast Guard that day. That’s our story and we’re sticking with it! I hope somewhere there is a gold star on our file. Priceless.
At last we arrived at the Charleston Harbor Marina for our visit! We settled in on our first night. It so happened that there was a HUGE Barbecue Festival going on within walking distance of the boat, so that’s where we went for dinner. That night was the chicken wing competition. YUM!! Here are some sights from that night.
This was a serious competition!! And there was live music. How cool is that?
Gotta love this outfit’s name . . .
And this was the most professional looking outfit around. They had the customized RV and everything . . . looked like a traveling rock band. Frank in front right sucking on a wing.
The chicken ‘n waffle wings are just sheer genius!!
Here is the creator of the Chicken ‘n Waffle wings . . . that’s all I’m sayin’.
We then spent several fun days with our friends Tom (aka O.D.) and Linda O’Donnell. Frank and Tom worked together in Atlantic City and have remained friends for years. We can’t thank them enough for their hospitality. They even coaxed us off of the boat to stay at their house for a couple of nights – something hard to do! And they also offered that ever precious resource to us that wins a place in our hearts forever: a laundry room and unlimited hot water. They were the perfect tour guides and ambassadors for the city.
Frank and O.D. reunited and sharing their love of ice cream.
Linda showing us the sights around Charleston!
I never knew Charleston was referred to as “The Holy City” because of the vast number of churches and church steeples throughout.
Beautiful architecture everywhere . . . walking on and around the campus of the College of Charleston.
Being big fans of southern live oaks (which are different than your basic oak trees of the north), they took us to see the Angel Oak . . . thought to be one of the oldest living things east of the Mississippi, estimates have it’s age as being nearly 1,500 years old. You read that right.
You really, really, really want to climb the Angel Oak when you see it . . . just magnificent!
Irishmen and their Irish Whiskey!
Another night they took us to a College of Charleston Basketball game against Miami (Frank’s son-in-law’s alma mater, so a bit of a conflict of interest for us!)
Here we are hanging out before the game. O.D. was a faculty member and Linda and O.D. are supporters of the college, so we got to take part in pre-game food and refreshment at the sports complex. Great fun! Thanks for a great visit, O.D.s!!!
After five fun days in Charleston, it was time to move on. We had cleaned the boat, done some boat work, gotten our fickle starter replaced by a great, fair, wonderful mechanic (Luthers Marine Services = AMAZING). We no longer hold our breath when we turn the key on the engine . . . pretty important.
We headed towards our next town, Beaufort, SC (pronounced like you are saying “beautiful”) with a stop along the way at a peaceful anchorage. Beaufort is a pretty cool town. We would definitely put that on the “to do” list again for next year.
A quiet anchorage except for the jumping fish. They weren’t jumping into our boat, though!
Beaufort’s waterfront
Sights around Beaufort
We were reminded that last season’s American Idol came from Beaufort. Go Candice!
Walking the neighborhoods of Beaufort . . . love the Spanish moss!
Sunset at the anchorage by Beaufort. This was the last nice night (weather-wise) for many nights. Another cold snap set in the next day.
As I posted on Thanksgiving, we were reunited with our friends on Magnolia for the holiday! Here I am eagerly awaiting their arrival on a less than idyllic day on the water. Frank is at the dock ready to assist with the lines. There they are turning into the fairway.
We did our best to enjoy some sightseeing around Hilton Head Island despite the 45 degree temperatures and 25mph winds. Anthony, Annette and Frank in front of the famous lighthouse in Harbortown.
Okay, Anthony busted us flirting with Neptune in his Santa hat. A little windy?
Shelter Cove was an old hangout of mine in earlier days. I was so excited to share it with the group and take a walk around. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were almost frozen in place, so our visit was a very quick one.
Thanksgiving morning was less windy and brilliantly sunny. After visiting with family by phone, Frank tried some fishing off the marina docks while I prepped some side dishes for our feast with Magnolia. We did not have fish for Thanksgiving.
Annette and Anthony hosted our feast on Magnolia. Annette prepared an amazing turkey breast and she and I split the side dishes. Magnolia made the pumpkin pie and Eleanor Q the apple.
There was no skimping on Thanksgiving dinner just because it was on a boat! We worked our two galleys hard, and here are the results!
Frank enjoyed his meal immensely, although it was another year of not getting his stuffing inside the turkey. (I try not to do inside jokes, but there are plenty of you out there who know that he whines about not getting stuffing made IN the turkey EVERY YEAR!)
I was truly so stuffed after this meal I had to roll back to our boat. It was SO GOOD!
Friday morning our two boats headed off to see Georgia next. We enjoyed our trip through South Carolina, but we were all getting in a hurry to get south fast and get warm!
Magnolia leading the charge to Georgia through the bridge.
Fast forward: Georgia is beautiful and we don’t mean to short change it, but our goal was to get through it as fast as possible. We kept thinking we would try to go “outside” and do some offshore to get south more quickly, but the weather had other plans. Conditions did not allow that, so we kept on going down the ICW which gets even more shallow and winding in Georgia. We muscled through several long days, most of them pretty cold, and made tracks. There were anchorages along the way . . . all beautiful. The scenery was lovely. The dolphins and pelicans were plentiful. Here are a few pictures:
Another great shot of Magnolia at sunset.
We wore all the layers of clothing that we had on the boat. When the sun is out, the enclosure warms the cockpit up nicely, but on cold, cloudy days, it is RAW! Jimmy Buffet does not write songs about this part.
A few days later, our southbound team rafted up close to St. Simons Sound to prepare for an opportunity to go offshore at last!
Annette looking over the preparations. Dinghies are up and on the decks ready to go
- And the next morning, we are out St. Simons inlet and back into the Atlantic Ocean.
And so, we temporarily said goodbye to the ICW, waved goodbye to Georgia until next year, and headed out to sea. Destination: FLORIDA!
North Carolina: The Second Half
The land of hospitality has been good to us and we loved the extended time we spent in the northern part of the state. But now it was time to get moving a little more quickly. After all . . . it’s November and it’s getting cold! So we made tracks continuing down the ICW with fewer multiple night stops in an attempt to get some miles covered. This map shows our path through the state.
Our path through North Carolina
Again, the ICW is pretty far inland in some sections, and then further south in the state it runs more parallel with the coastline. Different parts of the ICW have very different personalities, and we saw those changes as we moved along. So let’s do the tour through North Carolina. We had left Edenton, traveled the Albemarle Sound again and then headed down the Alligator River. The extra excitement for our trip that day (and not the good kind) was right before we got to the Alligator River. We finally had some nice wind and decided to put the sails up for a while. We are always looking to sail vs. motor, but our other motivation for doing this was that we were getting a little close to the end of our fuel. Our gauges are no different than the gas gauge on your car, and if you don’t know EXACTLY how close the needle can get to “E” from years of testing, well . . . you know the feeling. We felt we probably had plenty of fuel left, but we couldn’t swear to it, so conserving diesel was very appealing. Anyway, we put up the sails and turned of the engine. Then, as we approached the inlet to the River, we went to turn the engine back on. Click. Nothing. Zippo. No starting engine. First rule – don’t panic. Frank, being pretty good with a diesel engine, set out to find a fix to the problem. I was at the wheel calmly thinking through next steps in the cockpit. There wasn’t much wind left, but I was plotting a tack and a big loop in the open water to stall for time if it came to that. We couldn’t keep heading for the narrow inlet with limited control of the boat. At the same time, I had found the number for TowBoat US (the boat equivalent to AAA) just in case. After about 5 – 10 minutes of safely drifting about, Frank got the engine started by jumping it with a screw driver. And the screw driver had black singe marks on it from the episode. And I asked him if that was dangerous. And I got the same answer I have gotten at other times I ask such questions: “It’s only 12 volts. It won’t kill you – just hurt a little.” Yeah, I’ll bet that’s not what the screw driver is saying about now!! Our chief mechanic (Frank) has checked and rechecked things many times and we haven’t had the problem since – it appears to be fixed, but we live with a shadow of a doubt and fear a repeat performance. She has been perfect since the, but we’ll have to decide if we’re comfortable living with the doubt. We took on fuel (110 gallons, in case you’re wondering – we can hold 140) at the Alligator River Marina where we considered tying up for the night. They are supposed to have some mighty fine fried chicken there which we’ve both had a hankering for. (Note to my edit-happy, grammarian family members: I know the correct grammar would have been “for which we’d both had a hankering,” but my justification is that if you’re using the word “hankering” in the sentence, correct grammar would seem a little weird – just sayin’. Love you! ) But the place is a truck stop. I’m not kidding – it’s a marina and fuel dock for boats on one side and a gas station and truck stop on the other side. Somehow, spending good money out of the “marina budget” to park at a truck stop all night didn’t seem so smart when you can anchor close by for free. So we skipped the fried chicken (took 20 minutes to cook and we were running out of daylight) and moved on.
Sails up – and we were so excited . . . until the engine wouldn’t start.
Going into the Alligator River through the swing bridge
Seagulls observing our transit
Sunset on the Alligator River
just a few minutes later, a whole different palette of colors.
After a brief overnight stay, we were up and out early the next morning heading for Belhaven, NC. We planned to meet up with our friends on Magnolia. They were stopped there for a repair and were very gracious to offer to cook us dinner since we’d had a travel day. Frank and I took a quick walk around town after arriving. An hour is more than enough time to explore Belhaven.
Magnolia and Eleanor Q parked in a line . . . Annette welcoming us for dinner at sunset.
The next morning we said goodbye to the Bakers and Magnolia and headed to our next stop at River Dunes Marina just outside of Oriental, NC. Cruisers are always looking for a deal and River Dunes was one of three marinas with booths at the Annapolis Boat Show who were offering 2 nights for the price of one certificates, so certificate in hand, that’s where we went. What a beautiful facility! It is a huge housing community currently under development, and part of the thought of luring boaters is to show off the real estate. The place was very “civilized” – it was a little like being at a Golf Country Club except there was no golf course. The “boat house” (essentially the clubhouse) is a stunning building, tastefully decorated, with a restaurant/bar upstairs and front desk/lounge/pool room downstairs. The restaurant was not open as a full service venue, but they had a sign-up sheet for a “cruiser’s dinner” at 6:30 that evening. It was a set menu which sounded tasty and reasonably priced. Sure, why not? Another chance to meet people. There ended being 12 of us. When we went upstairs there were several small tables set up for the group. Then we spotted the “board room” with a large table for 12. Since the food was set up as a buffet, hey why couldn’t we carry our plates in there instead? After all, we all wanted to eat family style – that’s why you sign up for a “cruiser’s dinner.” The staff had no problem with our plan. The help there was limited for this teeny event, so we reset the table ourselves, found a pitcher and poured water around the table and generally treated it like we were in someone’s home. It was pretty funny. We had fun visiting and swapping stories and getting to know each other – all in all a very congenial evening. We enjoyed our two days there, taking advantage of the walking trails, the fitness room, the STEAM SHOWERS(!) and the laundry facility. They even had a courtesy car which we borrowed to go into the town of Oriental to pick up a thing or two. We had heard so much about Oriental, and it definitely has a charming, funky, nautical vibe to it that we’ll have to explore more extensively on another trip.
The boathouse at River Dunes
Going to the chapel . . . the community has a cute, teeny little chaple, a popular place for weddings.
Classy place – the right side is the fitness center; the left is the laundry facility!
And a lovely laundry room it was!
The view on the way back from doing laundry – Eleanor Q watching the sun set.
After two days in the lap of luxury (not really, but it was one of the fancier places we had been), it was time to move along again, so we headed to Morehead City where we tied up at Portside Marina. Now, Denard, the owner of the establishment, is one of the nicest men you will ever hope to come across. The customer service is unprecedented. The rest of the story is that the current is VERY strong at the face dock and the miserable weather didn’t help much. We toughed out the rain in our fowl weather jackets and took a walk around town. We stopped to say hello to, who else, Magnolia. They were staying in a different marina and meeting up with some family. Then we grabbed dinner at the bar at the Ruddy Duck. The place was fun and comfortable and a good respite from the weather. We ended up having a nice chat with a couple next to us from Virginia, also cruisers heading south.
After a bit of a windy, bumpy night, we were ready to head out the next morning. The strong current and wind had other ideas. Both were pushing us flat against the dock. Frank had tried to prep me for the many ways that we would try to get off the dock. We bumped our way forward on the straight pier (no boats ahead of us) but couldn’t get off the dock. Our bumpers were almost torn off of the boat with the forward progress we made since they were firmly wedged between the boat and the dock. They were doing their job, but they were taxed beyond their usual duties. After almost 40 minutes of inching up the dock and my nerves getting pretty frayed, we were loose and underway.
We had an observer watching our antics at the dock.
Our destination for the day was an anchorage called Mile Hammock Bay which is part of the Marine Corps Base, Camp LeJeune. Although we have read reviews about the anchorage saying that it can be extremely noisy with military exercises and helicopters, we were fortunate to be there on a “day off” and it was peaceful and a very nice anchorage. Magnolia joined us there and we served them up some shrimp and pasta (procured in Morehead City at the Seafood Market).
There are lots of dolphin sightings these days! Apparently they like traveling the ICW, too.
Magnolia pulling into Mile Hammock Bay
The next day we were off to Wrightsville Beach, NC. The trip took on a bit of a competitive nature since there are a flock of boats all traveling the same skinny route heading for the same places. On this day, we also had several swing or draw bridges, and we had to time our trip with the bridge openings and the currents. If you get to the bridge too soon before an opening, you have a pileup of boats floating around in a small space waiting to get through. (The term goat rodeo pops into my head for some reason.) Every boat has a different idea of how to manage the wait. This is called “station keeping.” It felt a little like being back on the Garden State Parkway and jockeying for position at the toll booths. We were happy to get this day behind us. We made our way to Wrightsville Beach, NC by afternoon where we anchored up for the next two nights.
Ems doing a teeny, tiny bit of work on the phone. This is the BEST office ever!
Going through one of the bridges.
Evening in Wrightsville Beach anchorage
The Fishing Pier in Wrightsville Beach
And look who we found wandering the beach! Annette and Anthony!
Walking the beach . . .
After a couple of nights in Wrightsville Beach, it was time to hit the road again, so to speak. We headed to our last stop in North Carolina, St. James Marina in Southport, NC, not far from Myrtle Beach. The marina rates through North Carolina were AMAZINGLY cheap as compared to the prices we saw in the Northeast over the summer, and the anchoring opportunities along the ICW are a little limited at some points, so marina it was. Now we started to see different personalites come out in the ICW. On our trip on this day, some parts of the ICW were fairly wide open waterways with one section even accommodating tanker traffic! Other parts were narrower. We have had a couple of canals connecting different rivers on some days. Now we were getting into more of the Myrtle Beach area meaning more condos, more golf courses, and more development in some sections. St. James is part of a golf course community and it was fun to walk around some of the neighborhoods and reflect on the old days of playing golf! (Eleanor Q had a detrimental effect on our golf games. We can live with that. Golf will still be there in a few years.) We landed at St. James that evening with our travel companions (yes, Magnolia). We have fallen into a bit of a leap frog arrangement with them: many days we overlap in a location intentionally, some days one will skip ahead of the other based on interests or (gasp!) schedules, but we will shadow each other south a fair amount of the way. This night we congregated at the Tiki Bar at the resort for dinner and live music. The weather was a little chilly for outside seating, but we bundled up and enjoyed the atmosphere to listen to some good classic acoustic rock.
A tanker passing us . . . Guess how I knew it was a tanker.
Yes, because of the visual aids for the nautically inept.
I liked the name of this place. Now if they just had a place that you went to after dinner called “Fire.” Get it?
St. James Marina – home for the night.
Frank enjoying the live music at sunset.
We found lots of southern hospitality in North Carolina and throughly enjoyed our trip through the state . . . but now it’s time to get farther south. Next stops: Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina!
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North Carolina Hospitality: Elizabeth City and Edenton
Elizabeth City is a popular cruisers’ stop along the ICW. They call themselves the Harbor of Hospitality – and they are, particularly Monday through Friday. We arrived on a Saturday. The Visitor Center is not open weekends and the late afternoon cruisers reception that we had heard so much about doesn’t take place on weekends, either. Our little pack of floating wanderers (many of us who met at the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center) decided to have our own welcome reception, borrowing the city’s tent. It was another lovely evening of socializing. On Sunday I (Ems) wandered up to the Methodist church . (You know, if I had just let you finish reading that particular sentence, there wouldn’t have been any need for me to specify which one of us walked to church, I suspect.) I was welcomed warmly before I even got in the front door. A lovely couple, Al and Dianna, adopted me for the morning. Turns out they have a son who lives on his boat in Charleston (SC) who has sailed to the Bahamas a number of times. The service and the music were very nice (a church that still has a pipe organ – hooray!) Al and Dianna offered to play tour guides around town that afternoon, telling me about an Arts and Crafts show at the local school. I declined the tour, but did take them up on the ride back to the docks where they came and met Frank and some of the other gang.
Al and Dianna escorting me back from church and visiting the docks..
Three of us couples walked to the art show and enjoyed a well prepared comfort meal in the cafeteria. Then we proceeded to stroll around the city admiring the historic houses. As we were walking back, Frank’s radar went off. His ears perked up and his nose started twitching like a blood hound. “What is it???” we all wondered. His instinct told him there was ice cream close by. Sure enough . . . just a little further up the road we spotted the Dairy Queen he had been detecting. How does he know?
Harbor of Hospitality
Magnolia and Eleanor Q – buddies hanging out.
Hanging out with Annette and Anthony. We did not try to coordinate our outfits, I swear.
Here is a monument telling the story of the “Rose Buddies” beside the transplanted bed of roses.
Eleanor Q leaving Elizabeth City at sunrise. Picture taken by Anthony aboard Magnolia.
Eleanor Q parked in Edenton Harbor.
Sunset our first night in Edenton.
Frank looking out over the water.
Here was our ride for the day . . . the county pickup!
We spent Halloween in Edenton. Fun things that made it apparent that it was Halloween: 1) “Silence of the Lambs” was playing on the TV in the laundromat. 2) They had “safe trick or treating” in the downtown district with local business, police and EMTs handing out the candy. (The police officers couldn’t be in costume, but one female officer had a stuffed black cat attached to her shoulder.) After having dinner in a local restaurant with a perfect view of the Halloween festivities, we walked to the classic, local movie theater to see Capt. Phillips. If you don’t know, that’s the true story about the tanker ship captain who was abducted by Somali pirates and then rescued by the Navy Seals. Tom Hanks is great in it, but somehow it felt a little odd to get to the end of the movie and say, “Okay, let’s go back to the boat now.” No pirates in North Carolina.
Halloween in Edenton! Even the dogs were in costume!
Laundry day in “The Wash House” with Anthony Hopkins on the screen. I offered to make Frank some fava beans for lunch but he declined. (Who knows the movie line???)
The next day we enjoyed exploring town even more. There are many historic structures in the town. One story is about the Edenton Tea Party at the Barker House. Seems that the famous Boston Tea Party sparked outrage in Edenton, and the women’s group that met regularly for tea took a stand and decided to boycott tea in support of Boston’s act of defiance. Britain was used to people protesting, but in the 1700s it was MOST unusual for a women’s group to take a political stand of this sort and word got back to Britain and created quite a stir.
Walking around Edenton
Historic Homes
Didn’t anyone ever teach this man not to stick his head in front of a canon?
Frank is headed to the barber shop – right after he finished his ice cream cone!
The second oldest church in North Carolina – built in the mid 1700s.
Edenton is 300 years old!
Early morning in Edenton
One of our favorite things about Edenton was meeting our new friends Gil and Barbara. They are Edenton locals, sailors and graduates of cruising to the Bahamas. While we were sitting in the harbor, Gil sailed by on his Sunfish. We struck up a conversation as he lithely maneuvered the little sailboat back and forth by Eleanor Q while chatting. By the end of the discussion he had invited us to his home for fresh oysters roasted over an open fire. (‘Tis almost the season – I am definitely changing the word “chestnuts” to “oysters” this year. Luckily that night, Jack Frost was not nipping at our noses.)
Gil on his Sunfish
We met him on Wednesday and the invitation was for Friday. On Friday I decided to attempt to make an apple pie to take with us and Frank worked on some boat projects.
Apple pie decorated with a crust apple . . . with a worm coming out of it. Blame it on my sister Triana. i stole the idea from her!!
Can you ever have too many wrenches?
So on Friday night, Gil picked us up and took us to meet his wife, Barbara, and to visit at their home. Their 31 foot sailboat, Barbara Jean, is in a slip right behind their house. Gil designed and built the boat himself and the two of them sailed it to the Bahamas. Not a detail was overlooked on that boat! After our tour, we sat at a table in front of a fireplace in their home and ate oyster after oyster after oyster! They have a metal grate on a swivel in the fireplace. It just swings right out, oysters go on the grate, it swings back in over the fire and voila! You have wood roasted oysters! Gil just kept bringing pan-fulls of them to the table and we kept on gobbling them up! We seriously went through a half a bucket of them. There was still a half bucket left, but we cried uncle! They shared their cruising stories and experiences with us and we learned more about each other. It was a delightful evening. Again, individuals showing simple acts of kindness to other people = big deal! That evening is what we’ll probably take away from Edenton more than anything else. And we hope to meet up with them again on our way back through.
Gil standing in the companionway of Barbara Jean.
Over the Bay and Through the Canal to Albemarle Sound We Go!
We’re heading south! And a good portion of our route for the next several weeks will be via the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Frank has had this route in his head for years, but being me, I couldn’t have spit out a good explanation of what it was or WHERE it was until more recently. (I tend to plan in shorter time spans; we’re different that way). So if you’re a little sketchy about it, let me give you a brief orientation to set the scene.
Going “Outside”: Offshore down the Atlantic
#2- Taking the ICW from Norfolk, but taking what is called Route 1 – the Virginia Cut. This route is used by commercial and recreational traffic and is kept at a depth of at least 12 feet.
Going “Inside”: The ICW, Route 1 – Virginia Cut
Going “Inside”: The ICW, Route 2 – The Dismal Swamp Canal – See how far inland that is? The green/red arrow is us sitting at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center
Ems at the helm from Hampton through Norfolk, VA.
Wonder if the people stationed here ever sing, “We All Live in a Yellow Submarine”? I wonder these things . . .
USNS Comfort – the designation means it is a non-commissioned ship owned by the navy but staffed by civilians. It is a mercy ship and firing on it would be considered a war crime. Among others places, it has been deployed to NYC on 9/11, Katrina, Haiti as well as various war zones.
Mile Marker “10”! The yellow triangle indicates an ICW marker.
Frank holding our “catch” – that’s all I’m sayin’. That was some GOOD eating that night!
Windsong in Deep Creek Basin with us
Driving into the locks. . .
The gates closing behind us.
A heron observing the operation and clearly ignoring the sign.
Frank watching the lock water rise
Going to the draw bridge . . .
Thanks Mr. lock tender/bridge keeper!
Brief history: The canal opened in 1809 and was largely hand dug by slaves in most difficult conditions. Because it was so shallow, only flat boats or log rafts could be manually poled through, typically carrying shipments of logs, shingles and other wood products from the abundant cedars and junipers. The slaves became so familiar with the route that it was widely used as a slave hideaway and became an important part of the Underground Railroad. It has been the inspiration for literature, poetry and songs. The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the upkeep of the canal, keeping it at at least 6 feet in depth. There are times when the canal is closed due to drought conditions. Recently, cruising friends of ours were turned away from the canal due to an overabundance of duckweed – a green plant with little teeny leaves. Due to some unusual and extended wind patterns, an excessive amount of duckweed had collected close to the top of the canal. The duckweed gets sucked into your intake for the engine, the strainer gets full of it and chokes the water/air supply to the engine which then overheats and eventually stops working! They had to tow many boats out. So they turned people away from the canal for several days until they could clear the overabundance of duckweed.
Here are some typical sights in the canal –
Crossing the State Line
Here I am steering on my tiptoes so I can see if we’re about to hit any logs or stumps. I will make my millions inventing platform boat shoes for women.
Frank took this beautiful shot from the bow as we traveled down the canal.
This was the view from the pedestrian bridge walking to the State Park. Only a couple of boats parked with Eleanor Q at this point.
A stroll through the state park. Watch out for bears!
In the park . . . a still. Really. Well, maybe a replica.
Also in the park – when was the last time you saw one of these?
Our happy little raft up! Neighbors for the evening.
That night was a record breaker for us: the low was in the upper 30s. We had every blanket on us that we own and were very cozy. We have a propane heater that we kept on until we went to bed – not safe to keep it on all night. In the morning it was 49 degrees in the boat. Good news is that between turning the heater on and lighting the stove for our coffee, it warms up pretty quickly.
Morning mist on the canal at the visitors center looking out the back of the cockpit.
A frosty morning with ice on the dock
Back Where We Started: Annapolis and the Next Leg
Knapps Narrows Bridge
Knapps Narrows
Anchored in the Wye River
Frank doing some fishing.
A blue heron in the bushes.
After a couple of nice days in the Wye, we headed back to our old stomping ground. It was a beautiful October Saturday meaning that the bay was PACKED with boats. We steered our familiar route right back to our old marina. Dean, owner of Stella’s Stern and Keel, had an open slip that we were able to rent for a couple of weeks, and when we pulled in it was just like we had left it . . . there was Dean in the yard ready with a hearty welcome and Buttercup, the yellow dog, with her mom/owner, Suzanne. It was a very welcoming feeling and we were excited to be back in our old stomping ground.
Reunited, and it feels so good . . .
Back at Stella’s Stern & Keel
Stella’s is at the end of Jones Cove in Back Creek. At the very end of the marina is a heron refuge. It is beautiful and peaceful back there!
We spent our time in Annapolis seeing friends, readying the boat for our trek south and visiting the boat show which gives us a chance to catch up with Mike, Liz and Robyn Gozzard, the builders of our boat. We met up with friends which included a “chick day” at the Boat Show with Cheryl! And sister Caroline met up with us at the end of the day, too! (That’s Ems sister Caroline – not like a nun or something.) Caroline brought a delightful dinner with her and then helped with a major grocery run the next day. Our very dear friends, Tom and Cathy, have a Brewer sailboat that they have been lovingly restoring over the last several years. We spent time catching up with them and seeing the fruits of their labor as they get ready to move aboard! They were our neighbors at Stella’s our first two years there and we have watched each others’ projects and preparations as we shared the cruising dreams over a beverage or meal. The offers of rides and help and errands from many was heartwarming, and we are always grateful for them!
Boat maintenance never ends!
Oh – the ever present laundry backpack appears. Guess what today is?
Maryland Ave. laundromat is a dream, and the day we were there, it was a cruiser’s party! It made laundry day fun, if that’s possible!
Boat Show – an annual pilgrimage.
Cheryl and I trolled the boat show. Caroline met up with us for a perch at the Marriott to watch the parade of boats leaving the city docks as the show breaks down – an event!
Okay, we let Frank come, too.
After seeing the pictures from the previous days, I realized how badly in need of a real salon I was. Especially since we were going to my mom’s birthday party! Bleached blonde no more – for a while. I will give up real salons soon , I promise.
We rented a car which we used to do a visit of the Mamas! First stop, a nice visit with Frank’s mom and bonus fly-by with two nephews while there! Always good to “chat with Pat”! Then we drove to attend Mama Rapking’s 90th birthday celebration. (That’s Ems’ mother – and yes, that is really my maiden name . . . ) All six children came in from all over the country to recognize this happy occasion! As I like to say, my mom is 90 going on 70. Not that I am at all biased, but she is spunky, witty, affectionate and independent and we love being around her. Frank and I made use of her spare bedroom . . . and I asked her if we could pretend I was in college again so I could bring my laundry with me!! We loved having the gang together again for a couple of days . . .
Mama blowing out her candles with sister Frances behind her.
Me and my mama!!
We took off from Annapolis this past Sunday morning early to start making our way south. First stop, Solomon’s Island, MD for a quick overnighter. We ended up anchored by a boat that we met in Martha’s Vineyard this summer! After a quick chat with them as we rode the dinghy by, we agreed to meet up the following night in Deltaville, VA, the next night’s scheduled stop. We anchored up side by side in Fishing Creek and enjoyed cocktail hour in their very pretty and spacious cockpit.
Leaving Annapolis . . . again.
We left Solomon’s Island on a misty morning.
Gotta love this trawler who put up a GIANT inflatable pumkin on deck! What an easy way to find your boat at night!
We spotted our first pelicans on the way to Deltaville!
Feathered visitors as we sit in the cockpit of Pendragon.
The minute we left Solomons and took a right on the bay, we were in new territory for Eleanor Q! And so we begin the next leg of our trip – the southeast coast of the U.S. First stop, Hampton, Virginia. Hampton is “right close” to Norfolk, thus major military area. As we were getting close we noticed several helicopters and a couple of fighter jets hovering over the area, and we figured that might be normal for the area. Then we heard a “securite” announcement (French pronunciation sounding like seh-cure-i-tay) commonly used on the VHF radio to alert boaters that a large vessel is underway. It announced that aircraft carrier # 71 was departing the area and going out to sea. It also reminded mariners that it is against the law to be any closer than 500 feet of a naval vessel, enforceable by force including deadly force. That certainly will make you think twice about doing a buzz by one of the navy fleet! And sure enough, there was a Naval entourage leading the way with four heavily armed gunboats coming out first. Then we watched as the USS Theodore Roosevelt come out of the Navy base. It was surrounded by a few skiffs directing it out. The ship had just undergone a complete overhaul in August, and after passing all of its sea trials had returned to Norfolk. Carrier #77 was parked right behind it, the USS Hebert Walker Bush. Both are nuclear powered ships. Frank looked up their specs. He quizzed me, “What do you think their range is?” This means how long can the boat stay out without need of refueling. The answer: 20 – 25 years. That ship wouldn’t have to come back into port for 20 – 25 years. I imagine that there would be a mutiny before they tested that theory, but that’s the deal. It is a self contained small city. Pretty amazing. When you look at the deck of the thing, you wonder what it is like for the young pilot the very first time they ever have to land on its deck.
Navy gun boat
The gun boat entourage…
USS Theodore Roosevelt leaving port.
Voyages of the Eleanor Q 