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- December, 2004 -- January, 2005
We spent Christmas visiting friends and family in Tampa,
Atlanta, and North Carolina. Sandy saw the doctor and
had a couple of tests and everything came out pretty much
OK. Still staying away from dairy products, although
bread is back in the diet. Feeling great, and only 20
pounds to get to a long-held weight goal! We spent a
LOT of money at Patrick AFB, stocking up the pantry and
every space available with cans and boxes. We have
enough food for about 2 months, since we're not familiar
with the Bahamas, although I am assured that they have food
there.
We are slowly traveling south, planning to meet Ray and
Peggy on Jellicle Cat in Maule Lake, N. Miami, later
this week. We will do our final gas and water stop
there, one more grocery trip, and then wait for a weather
window. We will head out through Key Biscayne and
across the Gulf Stream, perhaps to Gun Cay, or Cat Cay (a
long day sail), although we have been advised not to get
stuck there, and to go on across the Bahama Bank to Nassau
(a 24-hr trip). We will go from there to the Exumas,
just a bit further east.
- November 26--We are anchored in Cocoa, Florida. We
left Wilmington, NC on Monday, Nov. 15th, sailing out into
the Atlantic Ocean, to come back "inside" at St. Mary's
River, Cumberland Inlet, on Wednesday evening, Nov. 17th,
anchoring at Fernandina Beach, FL. We motored down the
ICW to arrive in Cocoa Beach on Monday, Nov.23rd. Last
month (see next paragraph) we had left the car in Florida,
so we could drive to Cape Coral for Thanksgiving with our
daughter, Page and her husband Mike. We will return to
Cocoa this weekend, and have lots of things to do to get
ready to take off toward the Bahamas! We have a few
projects on the boat, nothing big, but need a major food
provisioning.
After finally getting the engine back together and back
in the boat we determined we could not make it to Florida,
by boat, in time to vote, attend the Seven Seas Gam and make
our already scheduled doctor appointments, so we drove.
We had a good time at the Gam, which was in Melbourne,
Florida, meeting up with a number of friends and attending
lectures on cruising, weather forecasting, etc. We
then drove to Tampa for our annual physicals and visited
with a number of friends there. Our church music
minister and wife were nice enough to put us up for those 4
days. We then drove to Jacksonville beach and left our car
at Beach Marina on the ICW, taking Amtrack from there back
to N.C.
Sandy finally has a doctor's appointment in Jacksonville
on Dec 14th, with tests, and then we will spend Christmas in
NC with family, hitting all the children's homes somewhere
in there as well.
We plan to leave for the Bahamas as soon after the first
of the year as possible. We will see as many islands
as we can, and plan to stay in that vicinity a year or two.
-
October 27--Well after much
consternation we think we have located the oil pressure
problem and have the engine running properly, although it is
still out of the boat. Hope to have it back in
tomorrow.
Not sure when we are going south by boat again. We
feel that voting, especially in Florida, is very important
this year so we will probably go to Florida this weekend by
car to vote and we may go ahead and stay through the
following weekend so we can attend the Seven Seas Cruising
Association gathering and be in Tampa for a number of
medical appointments the following week. Who knows?!
Sandy is off getting our car, since it still hasn't sold,
and we will use it to get us to Florida, etc. She is
feeling much better, but still on a strict diet. We
will probably come back up here, to Wilmington, around the
12th, get the boat and then head south, outside, to Florida.
- October 18--There's not a lot of good news this week!
We are in Wilmington, at Uncle Don's free dock, but we are
having oil pressure problems--again!! We only have 100
hours on the new oil pump! Tony and Uncle Don are off
to see about a mechanic, and hope we won't have to stay here
a week to get it fixed. Tony has just about rebuilt
this engine since we started cruising last year!
Also, Sandy is still getting ill. Some of it does
appear to be lactose intolerance, but she's feeling poorly
even on nothing but meat (& seafood), vegetables and fruit!
Not AS poorly, thank you, Lord, but this is getting really
OLD!! We have doctor appointments in Tampa, 3 1/2
weeks from now . . . .
Sandy's brother Walter stayed with us Saturday night, and
we had a wonderful time. While we missed his wife
Sharon, perhaps when we get to the Bahamas . . . .
Our plan is to go outside (that's in the ocean, for you
landlubbers) to St. Augustine as soon as we can get away.
The Seven Seas Cruising Association meeting is the 1st
weekend in November in Melbourne, FL. Then to
Tampa (home), and some medical tests! Looking forward
to seeing our church family!
- October 6th--We left Norfolk/Portsmouth yesterday, and
are spending tonight in Coinjock, NC. Tony spent the
last week on Columbine alone at Hospital Point, Portsmouth.
Sandy drove to see family as described in the log of Sep 26.
Had a really good time. Son-in-law Brian got his
wings--YEAH!! Brian and Kathie are moving this week to
Ft. Bragg, so they will be close to our families. Pray
for Brian--as a new helicopter pilot he's bound to be off to
some war zone soon.
We are so excited to be going south finally! We are
looking forward to visiting familiar places and seeing some
new ones. We plan to see lots of new friends in
Melbourne the 1st weekend of November, and then be back in
our "home" in Tampa/Brandon/MacDill AFB for a little while.
Plan to see many friends and family as we travel.
- September 26--We have met several couples this month and
are so excited to be making more cruising friendships! We
had a great time at the Southbound Cruiser's Reunion--we
look forward to seeing our new friends again in other
places!
The Reunion was interesting--got some good information,
fretted about hurricanes, met lots of cruisers. We are
glad we went! We left Baltimore on Saturday, the 11th
to travel to Annapolis. We were excited to be starting
south! But . . . Sandy was sick. Headache,
nausea--not a pretty sight, and very miserable. About
every other night. After a week of this, on Wednesday,
the 15th (after not being able to leave Annapolis) we went
to the Emergency Room one night because she was getting
dehydrated. Got some fluids and Phenergan, and was
told that she had too much CALCIUM in her system and that
could be causing these symptoms. She stopped taking
her calcium pill and multivitamin, and was told to get her
blood checked again in 7-10 days--this could be serious.
OUCH! So she was OK for a day, and then was sick
again. Turns out she couldn't eat anything with
calcium in it at all! Couldn't get on line to check
this out. So we finally left Annapolis Thursday, the
23rd, and motored all night down the Chesapeake past all
sorts of wonderful anchorages so we could make up some time,
and anchored in Hospital Point, Norfolk, at 6:15 Friday
morning. We went to the Norfolk Naval Hospital to get
her checked out, and her blood chemistry was fine and her
EKG was fine. Two doctors pooh-poohed the too much
calcium thing, and said she was either working something
through her system, or she has developed LACTOSE
INTOLERANCE! Aaaaaarrrrggghh!!! So we went
straight to the drug store and got some Lactaid or whatever,
and she has been taking it ever since, and so far, so good!
She sure has lost some weight, though! So . . . we
will be in Tampa in mid-November for our yearly checkups,
and will certainly get this checked out further at that
point. We are still unable to get online to do any
research--we really need a list of foods to take this
Lactaid with--the package has not been very helpful!
Today, Sept 26th, Tony and I are going in different
directions--he is going to move the boat down the ICW toward
Wilmington this week, and I am driving (in the car we STILL
haven't sold) to Ft. Rucker, AL to see our son-in-law
receive his helicopter wings!! Taking it slow--Mom in
Charleston, Tony, Jr. and Teresa in Atlanta, then Ft.
Rucker, and then back next weekend. I will try to miss
as much of Jeanne as possible. Please pray for us
both, that we stay safe--being separated is bad enough, but
with both of us traveling and no really good way to stay in
touch it's especially hard.
- September 3--We arrived in Baltimore last night and will
anchor here in the harbor through next week. We are going to
attend the Southbound Cruiser's Reunion from 7-9 September.
Some 263 boats participated last year and we are hoping to
meet a lot of new people who are also heading to the Bahamas
and south this fall and winter. We also had the
opportunity to try out our cruising spinnaker yesterday, a
pretty, colorful, balloon-looking sail used downwind.
It was beautiful and worked great.
- August 31--We are in Havre de Grace, at the top of the
Chesapeake Bay! We have completed our 2nd goal in
getting to the northernmost point of the Chesapeake.
Our first goal was getting to the Chesapeake! We are here
for a few days, then headed back south. We'll be in
Baltimore for the Southbound Cruisers meeting in Baltimore
Sept. 7-9, hoping to see cruisers we have met on our way
north and meet others on their way south. We finally
had to give up on the poor dinghy and have bought a new one.
SO exciting!! Now if we could just sell the car. . .
anyone need a 2001 Isuzu Rodeo in great shape with 80,000
miles on it (nearly all highway miles)?!
- August 24-- We motored/sailed back across to the Eastern
Shore to Fairlee Creek--no place special, but very
beautiful. The next night we spent on the Sassafras
River just outside of Georgetown. We plan to be in
Havre de Grace tomorrow for the weekend. I've heard
that the water is so fresh and cold that it will clean the
slime off the bottom of the boat! We'll see . . .
- August 22-- We sailed into Annapolis, and anchored just
off the Naval Academy. Tony has a couple of cousins
and we so enjoyed spending time with them. We toured
the Naval Academy and found the dinghy we want. Now if
this one will just hold out till we get back to Florida and
their prices . . .
- August 20 finds us in St. Michaels, also on the Eastern
Shore. We toured the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum,
and it was really well done. We learned a lot!
- August 18--We have been here a week and it's time to
move on. Back across the bay to the Eastern Shore, the
Delmarva peninsula. We anchored at Oxford in Town
Creek off of the Tred Avon River, which is on the Choptank
River. This is the area that James Michener describes
in his book Chesapeake. We bought a copy of it
and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Eastern Shore is so
much quieter than the Western side. We like it a lot.
- August 11--our 31st wedding anniversary! We sailed
across the Bay to Solomon's, MD, where we ate in a lovely
shoreside restaurant. After anchoring, we received
word that Hurricane Charlie was coming, so we hunkered down
in Mill Creek behind Solomon's Island off of Pasquatank
River. Fortunately, as you now know, it veered east
and went south of us and we didn't get any weather from it
at all. Page & Mike in Cape Coral were shaken up, but
no significant damage, thank you, Lord. While we were
in Solomons we met our friends John and Kathy aboard Mariah.
- Mon, Aug 9th--Onancock is a lovely little town, but
nobody serves breakfast. We found out later that Walter
Cronkite used to take his boat and spend the summers there.
Motor/sailed again up the Eastern Shore to Crisfield, MD,
the "Crab Capital of the World." HOPEFULLY we can get a crab
sandwich for lunch tomorrow! We met a very nice couple--John
and Sandy on Caliente--in Onancock, and it appears that we
will be following each other up the Bay! We are going to
tour Crisfield with them tomorrow, Thursday.
- Sun, Aug 8th--motored across the Bay--you'd think going
ACROSS THE BAY the wind could be with us ONE TIME!!--to go
into beautiful Onancock Creek to the town of Onancock, VA.
- Sat, Aug 7th--left Deltaville, motored/sailed to Divided
Creek, VA. Anchored in a lovely cove, all alone.
- Sun, Aug 1st--Tony's brother Mike drove us back to
Deltaville, VA, and even took us grocery shopping! We spent
several days putting the engine back together trying to fix
the overheating problem, and finally have decided it must be
the temperature gauge itself.
We had an absolutely WONDERFUL July--let's see how short
I can make it . . .
Monday, July 5th--arrived in Deltaville, VA to leave
the boat (for 3 and a half weeks, as it turns out). Tony
worked on the engine and took it apart, still trying to
figure out why we're overheating.
Wednesday, July 7th--bus to Burlington, NC to pick up
my Mom and Aunt Maggie for the wedding. My brother Benjie
and his wife Barbara were there visiting from Texas, and we
were able to get all five of the "kids" and their spouses
together--it was strange not to have ANY of the
grandchildren!
Sunday, July 11th--drove almost to Charleston, SC to
leave Mom and Aunt Maggie with Cousin Kathie so we can have
Mom's car; spent the night with Tony, Jr. in Atlanta (got to
see my kitty cats!!!!!)
Monday, July 12th--drove with Tony, Jr. (the GROOM!)
to Brandon (Tampa area, Florida home)
Friday, July 16th-- had a wonderful rehearsal dinner.
Ladonna, Severne and Picadilli did a great job. Meeting all
the new family was really special.
Saturday, July 17th--WEDDING!!! Lovely ceremony (our
first Catholic wedding), great reception--didn't think the
bridesmaids would ever stop dancing with the bride and let
our son take her away . . . . Our Page won the scavenger
hunt; sorry about the watermelon on your lovely dress,
Teresa's Grandmom . . . . LOVING weekend with family and
friends, especially my sister Beth and her two fish--I mean
daughters. We especially appreciated brother Benjie and
Barbara and their son John and his wife Michelle coming in
on their way back to Texas and Memphis.
Sunday. July 18th--Went to our church in Brandon.
Great to see all our friends there. Bruce's singing was even
more beautiful than usual.
Wednesday, July 21st--Tony had hernia surgery, both
sides, laparoscopy. Everything went perfectly, he's still
sensitive but is recovering nicely. Now I'm going to need
therapy for my back, since I'm doing the anchor . . . ! But
he is washing the dishes for me.
Wed-Sat, July 21st-24th--spent the weekend of Tony's
recuperation with our daughter Page and her husband Mike in
Cape Coral. She has a lovely new house and is working to get
it decorated to her satisfaction.
Sun, July 25th--Drove to St. Augustine.
Mon, July 26th--met the nice people who do our mail
at St. Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs; drove to
Enterprise, AL to spend two nights with our daughter Kathie
and her husband Brian.
Wed, July 28th--drove to Atlanta to take our son
Tony, Jr. (got to see my kitty cats!!!!!) and his new wife
Teresa out to dinner, as it was Tony, Jr.'s BIRTHDAY!! We
did not spend the night with them--we stayed in a hotel. I
am trying VERY HARD to be a GOOD mother-in-law!
Thurs, July 29th--Drove to Burlington, NC to return
Mom's car and spend a little down time at "home." It was
VERY quiet, and we kept waiting for a dog or cat to come
down the hall, or Mom to ask, "Can I get you something?"
We are still in Portsmouth, and have had a setback.
After replacing the oil sending unit in Wilmington, we have
continued to have problems with the oil pressure and the
engine temperature. After we got to Portsmouth Tony
ran all the tests he could do to determine the problem, and
we finally had to go into a mechanic's shop. We are
right now next to Hospital Point in a working slip, with the
engine in the air! Turns out the problem is the oil
pump, which is under the engine and inaccessible unless the
engine is off of it! (Every boater's nightmare.)
So Tony and I spent yesterday afternoon undoing bolts and
belts and electrical connections and pipe fittings so that
the cockpit floor could be removed and the engine could be
lifted this morning, and sure enough it's the oil pump.
(Which at this point we would have replaced anyway!!)
So instead of starting a sailing trip today we are waiting
for the part to come in on Monday. And it's HOT!
Once we have the boat all back together and cleaned up,
we will start a sailing trip to visit the southern quarter
of the Chesapeake Bay for about 2 weeks or so: Ft.
Monroe, where Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled
Banner; Yorktown; perhaps Jamestown, etc. We will
start for Tampa via NC for the wedding the 2nd weekend of
July.
We arrived in Portsmouth on June 13th. Finally in
the Chesapeake. After leaving Wilmington we sailed up
the ICW to Beaufort, NC and anchored in Town Creek. We
met my brother there and spent the next 3 days enjoying the
town and his in-laws' beach cottage. Beaufort is a
great little town, very cruiser friendly and full of
beautiful old homes and history.
We then headed north, stopping in Oriental and Belhaven.
We stayed 2 days in Elizabeth City, finding this town to be
really charming and very friendly. We met Fred and the
Rose Buddies, famous for their hospitality to cruisers for
over 20 years. We then had the opportunity to travel
up the Pasquatank River and into the Dismal Swamp.
This area was absolutely beautiful and pristine.
Within the Dismal Swamp we traveled in the Dismal Swamp
Canal, dug over two hundred years ago and surveyed by none
other than George Washington. Tons of history has
occurred along this almost forgotten canal. There are
two locks on the canal and we experienced our first lock
(and second!) operation. We also experienced lots of
bugs, a water moccasin, and more submerged logs than we want
to remember.
We are currently anchored at Hospital Point, Portsmouth,
VA. We will spend a few days sightseeing here and
reprovisioning as we decide what we want to see and do over
the next several weeks.
We have had a great time over the past four weeks
visiting family and friends, both in the Carolinas and
Florida. Our family here in Wilmington has been most
gracious hosts and we have enjoyed the meals, air
conditioning and pool.
But we are anxious to get underway again and continue our
adventure. We are going to hang out in the vicinity of
Wilmington for a few days, at anchor, and then head up to
Morehead City. We will meet my brother and his wife
there and spend a few days touring Beaufort. Then on
towards Norfolk and the Chesapeake Bay.
We arrived in Wilmington on Saturday. We are docked
close to Bradley Creek, just behind Wrightsville Beach in a
creek off the ICW. Tony's uncle has a dock that we are
using, so that we are sure the boat is secure while we head
back to Florida! We went to Burlington and picked up
our car (which still hasn't sold) and had lunch with Tony's
brother, my sister, and my brother and sister-in-law.
Tony is in the process of fixing the oil sending unit!
We will be back in the Tampa area for the next week.
We are really looking forward to being home and seeing all
our friends! Our soon-to-be daughter-in-law is
graduating from college as a nurse, and we are having a
wedding shower for her.
We expect to be docked in Wilmington through May, and
perhaps into the first week of June. We have lots of
family to see and places to go and things to do. We
would like to do a leisurely cruise through the Outer Banks
and into Norfolk on our way into the Chesapeake Bay for the
summer. We have lots of people to see up there as
well!
We are finally in North Carolina!! We are
fulfilling one of our biggest dreams--to motor up the ICW
past Holden Beach! This is where Tony spent a lot of
his time in the summers growing up, and where my family
camped several summers while I was a teenager. I used
to watch Tony and my brother surf with 9-foot boards.
Come to think of it, I did some surfing myself!
We did several half days, timing our arrival and watching
the current. We spent our first night in NC just
outside of Southport. We spent the next night in the
Shallotte Inlet, just behind Tony's Dad's old cottage which
was sold probably 25 years ago. It's where Tony
and I spent our honeymoon. We stopped in Holden Beach
and saw Tony's Aunt Carey and Uncle Buddy for a few minutes.
We'll see them again later.
I think that the Waccamaw River in South Carolina was the
most beautiful part of our trip. Florida was mostly
lots of expensive homes. Georgia was mostly marshland,
very open, lots of grass and a few trees here and there.
The Waccamaw River is absolutely gorgeous. Not very
wide, but lots of trees. A real forest. Cypress,
pine . . . thick, beautiful trees of every shade of green.
Fortunately by this point we were able to slow down a little
and really enjoy this day.
We arrived in Charleston on Saturday, April 17th.
We went to church with "the Moms," as we call them. We
had a sweet time visiting with them and Cousin Kathy.
We stayed there two nights and then spent Monday night on
the boat in preparation for leaving early Tuesday morning.
But . . . we got about halfway down the harbor toward Ft.
Sumter and realized the oil gauge wasn't reading as it
should. So we limped back to the City Marina and had a
mechanic come out and diagnose it as a bad sending unit.
Thank you again, Lord--not a big problem! We decided
to go ahead with our traveling and keep a closer eye on the
oil and fix it in Wilmington, when Tony had time to get the
part and do the work himself. The silver lining on
THIS adventure was that we called the Moms and had them come
have lunch with us! Even Kathy was able to come from
work. They had not been able to see the boat because
of where we were anchored, and were so disappointed.
So this worked out great from that viewpoint!
We have arrived in Hilton Head and were able to dock at
the house across the street from my cousin--there was plenty
of water when we arrived at dead low tide. That saves
us from having to dinghy across the river, and the neighbor
says she likes having our nice sailboat on her dock!
The neighbor is actually Stan Smith and his family.
Stan was the #1 US tennis player during the '70's. We
are having great fun with Duchess & Bob and Matthew and
Luke. I cooked them dinner on the boat! We'll
leave here on Friday, and are very excited about seeing Mom
and her twin Aunt Maggie (Duchess's mom) in Charleston
probably by Sunday.
Cumberland Island was wonderful! We went ashore and
walked in the virgin pine woods--so much like being home in
North Carolina! We met some campers from Atlanta, saw
a few of the wild horses, and a lot of the evidence that
they had been there! It was so quiet that we HEARD the
tide change around the boat at 3:30 a.m.! We
celebrated Jesus's resurrection, Easter morning, by reading
the Biblical account of the Last Supper and then doing
communion together-just the two of us. It was very,
very special.
Since then we have traveled pretty quickly. We
average still about 50 miles a day. Georgia was
interesting--after seeing all the mansions on the ICW in
Florida, Georgia was desolate--we went two days through
marshlands without seeing a house! They began to show
up as we got close to Savannah. We are getting used to
being passed by motorboats who pretend we're not there and
give us a wake that knocks things around. Some do slow
down; very few of them call on the radio and let us know
they're there. We have rigged a rearview mirror!
The big ships who need lots of room do call, and we sure
move over for them! Monday and Tuesday, April 12 &
13th, were very windy, and we had several sounds (lots of
open water) to go through--fortunately the wind was behind
us most of that time, but it was exhausting.
We are just south of Jacksonville, next to Crying Child
Island, anchored in the Pablo River. We traveled hard
Wednesday and Thursday and conquered 125 miles! Today
we went in to the Mayport Naval Station commissary and PX
and bought LOTS of supplies and groceries. It's nice
to have food in the pantry again. Tony tried to catch
some shrimp for supper but was not successful. So far
we are batting 0 in catching our dinner. We are very
tired tonight, but will move on tomorrow. We plan to
be at Cumberland Island tomorrow night, and are going to be
at my cousin Duchess's house on Hilton Head Island about
mid-week.
Slower day in Titusville. We walked a bit, looking
for an American flag to replace the tattered one we took
down. This place reminds us very much of our hometown
of Burlington, NC. Another sailor told us that Vero
Beach City Marina was better, but that's hard to believe.
We plan to get up early tomorrow, make some good time and
try to get to Mayport Naval Station (in Jacksonville) in two
days instead of three (maybe). We plan to go to the
Commissary there and do some real reprovisioning.
We got up at 8:00 and fixed hot oatmeal for breakfast.
It was downright cold! The ospreys had decided to use
our solar panels for target practice during the night.
At 8:50 we pulled anchor, asked for a bridge opening and
entered Titusville Municipal Marina. It turned out to
be a very nice place with great docks and facilities.
We jumped right out and went to the grocery store, refilled
a propane tank, washed clothes, Tony scrubbed the boat stem
to stern and all accouterments thereon, Sandy polished all
the "windows" . . . and discovered that our "down day"
had left us exhausted! So we decided to stay another
day!
We got up this morning and headed for Titusville.
It was very windy, 15-20 mph, and the wind was on our nose
again. Fortunately we were in the ICW and only one of
about 5 bridges required an opening. We got to the
NASA Causeway Bridge at 2:30 pm! Our anchorage was
fortunately on the NW side of the bridge and it gave us some
protection from the winds. This spot was less than a
half-mile from the Titusville Municipal Marina, but our
reservation was for Monday night. We needed a little
rest anyway. Sandy decided to defrost the refrigerator
in preparation for reprovisioning on Monday. It will
be nice to sleep in a little tomorrow morning. Sandy
caught site of a manatee. Did you remember to set your
clocks ahead?
A busier day on the ICW--passed many islands on the
Indian River full of weekend picnickers. Much more
boat traffic. We traveled about 65 miles today--our
longest day so far (10 hours) . We anchored in
Melbourne tonight. We had originally planned to take a
rest day here, but decided to go on to Titusville.
Anchored at Jensen Beach Bridge.
- Thursday, April 1
We left Lake Sylvia about 8:00 a.m. and went out via the
Port Everglades inlet. We sailed in the Atlantic Ocean
today, although toward mid-afternoon we had to motor to our
final destination, because the wind was on our nose. Today
we saw lots of flying fish, but Tony still hasn't managed to
catch us a dinner. We also had some interesting guests
today! It seems that we were right in the line of a bunch of
Prairie Warblers (little birds) coming back to Florida after
wintering in the Bahamas. (At that point we were only about
50 miles away from the Bahamian islands.) They flew by one
at a time--never saw a bunch of them. We had two birds come
in the cockpit and get out so fast we didn't have time to
enjoy them. I couldn't ever decide what those two were, but
we did recognize the Prairie Warblers (using our trusty
Audubon North American Birds book), because they stayed with
us for a while! There were two of those as well--we figured
one male and one female. The male came in and landed in my
hair. Tony rescued him and he sat on Tony's finger and took
a nap--he was still a baby and was SO tired. Soon thereafter
another one came in, and they sat together on my clothesline
until they were ready to leave. They were so cute! Check out
the pictures in the Photo Gallery. Tonight we are anchored
in Lake Worth at the Port of Palm Beach. We will do the ICW
again for many days. It was a little rough out there today,
and I don't want to wash that much salt off the "windshield"
every night.
- Wednesday, March 31
This was a full day. We left our anchorage about 7:20 a.m.
and motored through Miami on the ICW (which is what we will
be doing most of) It's an interesting place! We're getting
really good at waiting for bridges already! At lunchtime we
stopped on the ICW and docked at Joe's Market. We had lunch
in the bistro next door and then bought a few groceries at
Joe's. We had a little trouble getting the boat off the
dock, as the wind was working against us, but we managed it
with no damage to the boat--and as my Mom always says, "an
inch is as good as a mile"! This night we anchored in Lake
Sylvia at Port Everglades. Had some excitement--on checking
the boat just after dark, we realized that we were not
turning in the same direction as the other boats. Tony dove
down and saw that the anchor rode (that's "rope" to you
landlubbers) had wrapped AROUND the KEEL!! Quite a
phenomenon and we can't figure out how it happened. Anyway,
we got it fixed and re-anchored. There were odd winds and
currents in this small anchorage. Meanwhile we listened to
planes landing, ships blowing whistles, and even trains! It
did quiet down a bunch before it got too late. There was a
couple with 2 little kids--probably 4 and 2--having a blast
on their sailboat next to us. They were so precious to
watch.
- Tuesday, March 30
Another beautiful day! We left Rodriguez Key just before
8:00 a.m. and headed NW toward Miami. We traveled in Hawk
Channel, which is between the shore and the protected reef
in the Atlantic. It's miles wide. We entered Key Biscayne
waters and anchored just outside of No Name Harbor, to save
the anchoring fee (Howard!). We are anchoring as much as
possible to save money. We settled in about 3:30 p.m. We
have deflated the dinghy so we wouldn't have to drag it, but
that means we have to go to some trouble to pump it back up
so we can hit the shore. Haven't seen any reason to do that
so far.
- Monday, March 29
We pulled up anchor and headed out of Boot Key Harbor just
after 7:00 a.m. It was a lovely day, but the wind was pretty
much on our nose so we motored. Just about lunchtime we got
a call on the radio and you will never guess who passed us
going the other way and recognized the boat?!! I'll tell
you, 'cause nobody could get this one--it was the former and
only owners of our Columbine!! We knew at some point that
they were going to be in the area, but we missed them by one
day, as they were heading to Boot Key. They had tears in
their eyes, they said, as they went by. Told us the boat
looked good, and we assured them that we love this boat very
much! We had a little rain in the afternoon, and anchored
just off of Rodriguez Key with several other boats for the
night. We looked really good doing our anchoring dance!
- Sunday, March 28
The wind is finally "laying down" enough that we can leave
on Monday! We have very much enjoyed our time here, but the
last two weeks of such heavy wind have been very tiring, and
we are ready to GO CRUISING!!
- March 12, 2004
We are
going to be in Marathon another 2 weeks. Tony has had
a flare up of an old problem and we were very blessed to get
to see a doctor in Key West on VERY short notice, and we
will need to go back in two weeks for a checkup. So
we'll spend this time working on the to-do list and seeing
things we haven't seen and doing things we haven't done!
Not a bad place to be "stuck" in!
- March 4, 2004
We are anxious to start cruising again!
Marathon has been a great stop, but we are itching to move
on. We have met many cruisers here and made some new
friends. We have also renewed our friendship with long time
Tampa friends who have been cruising for as much as 9 years.
We have gained a wealth of knowledge from cruisers who have
years of experience under their hulls. We have also
gotten a lot of our “to do list” accomplished while anchored
here. It hasn’t all been work—we have enjoyed the
beach here and some snorkeling at Sombrero Reef. We
both have a nice tan and have lost about 15 pounds each.
Cruisers are like a small town
community. Everyone gets to know just about everyone
else and is willing to help out others at the drop of a hat.
It’s a very social group, people gathering at friends' boats
each evening to share drinks, snacks, and local gossip and
concerns. The men talk engines and heads, etc., while
the women talk about family, navigation, and recipes.
We ALL talk about weather! We have friends over for
dinner a couple of times a week. We have also attended
barbeques and even a “Death by Chocolate” party on
Valentine’s Day. Every morning at 9:00 we participate
in a local Cruiser’s Net on the VHF radio welcoming new
cruisers into the harbor, making announcements of general
concern to cruisers, asking people who need help with a
project or repair, and a buy/sell opportunity. Its lot
of fun.
The weather has really been crazy
since our arrival. Cold fronts have been coming
through every three or four days bringing cooler
temperatures and winds of 20 mph or better. Right now
the winds have been blowing 15 to 20 mph constantly for the
last 6 days and predictions are for this to continue at
least 3 more days. There are many cruisers who have
been waiting for a good weather window to the Bahamas for
weeks now. You don’t want to cross the Gulf Stream,
which travels north at 2 to 3 knots, when the wind is
blowing south at 15 to 20. Makes for very nasty seas.
Our plan is to leave here on March 10th
and head up the Atlantic coast to Biscayne Bay, just south
of Miami. We will then enter the Intracoastal Waterway
(ICW) and travel it through Miami to Port Everglades.
We will then go outside into the Atlantic to bypass Ft
Lauderdale and its thirty bridges, reentering the ICW at
Ft Pierce inlet. We will then mosey on up the ICW,
stopping at St Augustine for a few days, then Jekyll Island,
Hilton Head, Savannah, and finally arriving in Charleston in
early April. After spending a few days there we will
continue on up the ICW to Southport and Wilmington, stopping
there about the end of April and remain there for several
weeks to visit with our families all over North Carolina.
We will try to update every day, but certainly as often as
we can to keep our loyal visitors current!
We have enjoyed your emails and
comments—please continue. Thanks for participating in
our adventure!
-
January 20, 2004
Thank you for your patience! We
have been unable to update for a while because of
communication problems, and now the computer is down!
I'll be visiting the Internet cafe occasionally so stay in
touch!
-
We had a lovely holiday, though it was
a bit rushed getting to see everyone. We had a
wonderful Christmas with all the children in Ft. Myers, and
then traveled to Alabama and North Carolina. We were
glad to get back to Columbine on Jan. 9th, and then left for
the Dry Tortugas on Monday the 12th. We had a very
boring sail overnight (Thank you, Lord!) and arrived at the
first marker about 8:00 a.m. We stayed there two days
and two nights, then made our way to Marathon via Boca
Grande Key, Boca Chica Key, and then Big Pine Key. We
arrived in Boot Key Harbour on Sunday, the 18th. We
have hooked up with our friends and plan to be here for at
least one month, perhaps two.
Take care and God bless you all!
- December 17, 2003
We are moored at Ft. Myers for the holidays! Had a
great time on the Gulf and the Intracoastal coming
down--what a ride! Had a lovely lunch at Cabbage Key
and explored the Tunnel of Love on Caya Costa, among other
places.
We are stationary for the next month.
Seeing the children, Tony, Jr. graduates, going to NC at the
first of the year to visit family.
Short story: Motoring into the
Caloosahatchee River going into Ft. Myers. Bad
weather, very cloudy, lots of current, some wind.
Starts to rain, losing visibility. All of a sudden, the
three red markers ahead are lit by a ray of sunlight like
they were on fire!! We didn't even have time to ask for
help--He knew exactly what we needed!!
Hope you and yours have a blessed
Christmas! Remember--Jesus is the Reason for the
Season!
- December 7, 2003
We are CRUISING!! We left Bahia
Beach on Sunday, Nov. 30th, headed north on the ICW.
We motored several days getting to the Anclote River and
spent a night there. Had a pleasant day there and ate
lunch at a Jimmy Buffet type restaurant. Thinking we were
racing bad weather, we motored back south and arrived BACK
at Bahia Beach in time for a Christmas party on Saturday
night. Along the way we had to repair a broken raw
water pipe on the engine. Fortunately we were close to
the West Marine in St. Pete at the time.
We have fueled up and filled our water tanks and are heading
south on Monday, Dec. 8th. The cold fronts just keep
coming into Tampa Bay and we are tired of wearing our sweats
and jackets-this is not how we imagined it. Next stop
Ft. Myers!
-
November 13, 2003
On November 8th we had an "Open" Boat
party and ship blessing. It was a great time attended
by our close friends from work, church, and fellow live
aboards, about 40 people in all. One of the aims of
the party was to show all our non-boating friends what the
boat was like and that we really aren't crazy. I think
it may have had the opposite effect! Still looking to
leave Thanksgiving weekend. We have started
reorganizing the boat storage, cleaning out our storage unit
and have put the pickup up for sale.
-
October 21, 2003
We’re back in the water! We have finished the bottom
job, still working on the teak. But SO glad to be
floating again! Just a few more weeks till we take
off!
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