Arriving in the Bahamas – Another Moment in Time
There have been a few significant (to us) moments in our adventure so far which is now going on eight months . . . moving onto the boat, taking the lines with us, our first overnight passage, making it to Northeast Harbor in Maine . . . and the latest, as of December 30th, 2013, was making it to the Bahamas. We just looked at each other shortly after arrival, and one of us said, “We just sailed from Maine to the Bahamas!” That was followed by a quiet fist bump and a look of understanding between us. For many salty sailors out here, that’s child’s play. For us, that’s still a pretty big deal. Here’s how it went down:
We staged our departure from the U.S. in Biscayne Bay just south of Miami. We listened to and studied all the weather information we could get our hands on looking for the right weather window. The weather and wind direction/speed determine what part of the Bahamas to aim for and whether it will be a day trip or an overnight trip. There are LOTS of islands in the Bahamas, so you have to determine which part of the Bahamas you want to visit. We chose to do the 50ish mile day trip from Miami to Bimini. Our next jump, which will be longer and will require an overnight trip, will be to Nassau. Then we will head down to the red chain of islands, the Exumas. If we can tackle that much in the next few months, we will be thrilled. We have learned from this summer that you can’t see and do everything, and that you can wear yourself out trying and not have nearly as much fun.
You can see how close Bimini is to Miami here.
Okay, basic geography complete, back to our trip to Bimini! The significant part of that trip is that you have to cross the Gulf Stream. When you plan your route to Bimini, it looks like you just set a course with a straight line from Miami to Bimini, right? Not so much. The Gulf Stream flows from south to north, so you aim the boat slightly south of your mark so that when you get into the Gulf Stream you aren’t trying to fight it, but you let it take you upstream a bit. Basically your route ends up looking like a sideways “S” by the time you’re done. We were very fortunate to have picked a very benign day!! The winds were quite calm, so we had to motor sail (which was fine) and the Gulf Stream wasn’t all that noticeable when we got in it! The interesting thing is that the depth on our route ranged between 1,500 and 2,500 feet. Yup – that’s deep. Our depth finder just laughed at us when we got into those depths. It’s so deep it doesn’t read the depth . . . can’t send the signal that far . . . so it just blinks at you, like, “Yeah, right. Talk to me later when you get back in the hundreds!”
Frank and I have both gone through our various phases of anxiety prior to this crossing. Generally we would trade days (which is good). Some of it, for me, was the anxiety of the crossing itself. Some of it was leaving the ease and comfort of the U.S. with good cell phone service and internet. Some of it is being far from family at a time when I feel I should be closer. Frank’s anxiety was mostly around being MORE separated from family and always his anxiety is about making sure the boat is in safe and working order. We had ourselves pretty worked up by the time we left and neither of us got much sleep the night before we left. I say all that to lead to this point: a strange thing happened when we got in the middle of the Gulf Stream with no land in sight in front of or behind us . . . we relaxed! We couldn’t check the internet, so we DIDN’T obsessively check it every five minutes as we are known to do. It didn’t make our concerns about family go away, but we did look at each other and say, “What were we so worked up about?” We just let go a bit.
There were probably a dozen other boats within sight of us most of the way. We passed a couple of tankers along the way. We saw a couple of squalls in the distance, but we were lucky that we dodged them or they dodged us. Frank said he did notice a water spout off in the distance which he wisely did not mention to me. I think I watched the Wizard of Oz at too early of an age and have a rather keen dislike of anything resembling a tornado. But the squalls were small and isolated and had no impact on us.
Leaving Biscayne Bay in the early hours of the day.
Magnolia took this shot . . . makes it look like we’re chasing down the freighter! I promise we were not as close as this makes it seem.
Captain at the helm underway to Bimini! Magnolia behind us.
We could see a little squall in the distance. Look carefully you’ll see a sun dog! (mini rainbow)
Rainstorms actually show up on radar. Here’s the one we were keeping an eye on – the big yellow blob..
At this point we were traveling at about 6.3 knots. We decided not to play chicken with the storm and hung a left to avoid it. That was the first time we could really recognize the Gulf Stream . . . changing our heading put us more directly in the flow (instead of perpendicular to it) and we shot right up to 8.1 knots!! Nice. We were only about 8 miles from Bimini and on the home stretch!
Ems on watch and feeling pretty good with Bimini in sight!
Even after seeing pictures, we couldn’t get over seeing how blue the water really is.
Land ho! Bimini in sight!
As soon as you arrive in the Bahamas, you must clear customs. From the time you get into port until the time you clear customs, vessels are required to fly a yellow quarantine flag, seen below. The marina provided us with all the necessary forms to fill out and then only the captain can go to the customs office armed with paperwork, boat documentation and passports while the rest of the crew must stay with the boat until cleared. We were given the advice that one should dress very neatly and respectfully to go deal with the customs office. Frank put on a nice shirt and khakis for the trip (even though it was quite hot!) He came back with the news that it may have been overkill, but better to err on the side of too much respect than not enough! The customs and immigration people were friendly and helpful, and he returned with our clearance for 90 days and the fishing licenses that come with that! (Do you need the fishing license to fish or to catch, because if it’s to catch, Frank may not need one at all!)
Quarantine flag at the ready.
Parked at Brown’s Marina.
We came into Brown’s Marina with a flotilla of boats from Canada! We have had a fun several days getting to know our boat neighbors in the marina.
Customs cleared, we could take down the yellow flag and raise the Bahamian courtesy flag. Excellent.
Frank returned from customs and the yellow flag came down and the Bahamian courtesy flag went up! You always fly the flag of the country you’re from on the stern and the courtesy flag of the county you are visiting in the rigging.
After walking to the BTC office to get cell phones and SIM cards for communications, the exhausted crew stops at Big John’s for dinner. Dinner is coming . . . I know all you see are beers. Anthony is behind the camera. We all toast to the fact that we made it to the Bahamas by boat.
One of the boats in the marina took it upon themselves to organize a cruisers pot luck the second night here which was also New Year’s Eve. The marina has a beautiful area with glass top tables and charcoal grills which we took full advantage of. A good time was had by all getting to know other cruisers and swapping stories and agendas for the winter. The following days have been full of walking on the beach, fishing from the docks, visiting with neighbors, New Year’s Eve parades, walking along with the Junkanoo parade and general fun and relaxation.
Annette and I took a great walk on the beach our first full day and explored town.
Hanging with our new friend Nancy at the New Year’s Eve cruisers pot luck.
The Dolphin House is a beautiful building and museum owned, operated and decorated by an artist who has used scraps from the sea and other sources to make mosaics of every inch inside and out.
Ashley is the artist and visionary behind the Dolphin house. He gave Nancy and I a tremendous tour!
This was the after church New Year’s parade with the community band. The women looked beautiful in their all white outfits!
I like any place where there is so much dancing in the streets!!
Frank’s looking pretty pleased with life!
Crocodile Dundee heading out on his fishing excursion with one of the other men in the marina. He did, in fact, catch a few little snappers and several barracudas (which went back in.)
Annette and I at the Junkanoo parade!
Dancing in the streets! I had a cute little dancing partner.
Other sundry activities included renting a golf cart to tour the island, eating conch salad fresh made by the water, and meeting more new friends
We are all waiting for the next weather window to make our next trip over to Nassau. The “forced” down time has been just perfect. The weather has alternated between hot and humid to gray and breezy and everywhere in between . . . but it has all been beautiful (especially looking at pictures of snow back home this morning!) While sitting in a lounge chair overlooking the marina the other afternoon, Frank looked as content as I’ve seen him look in a while and said, “Now THIS is what I signed up for.” We have started a whole new, amazing phase to our cruising.
“This is what I signed up for.” – Frank Quigley
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.
Short Story: “Unexpected Days”
This story was originally written in July, 2013.
Unexpected Days
Voyages of the Eleanor Q 