Saturday, January 29th – Port Canaveral

Another dream cruise… no wind, 70 degrees, and lots of sunshine.  I started working on my tan today!  It was very quiet out on the water, not a single boat in sight for most of the way.  Lots of dolphins though!  They are so magical, even though they are all over the place, I get excited every single time I see them.  We cruised along the entire 25 mile stretch of Daytona Beach.  Just 25 miles of sand…I am sure you must be able to see that stretch from space!!

I tried very hard to see a Northern Wright Whale, but after many hours of straining to see one, I gave up.  Not a single one in sight, even though we travelled through their feeding grounds.   We did, however, cruise alongside the NASA space shuttle site, and saw all the hangars, derricks and radio towers along the stretch of Cape Canaveral.  We reserved a space at one of the many marinas in Port Canaveral, and arrived at about 4 pm, just in time to watch 3 GIANT cruise ships set out for the next leg of their voyage.  I even saw the Mickey Mouse cruise ship – very cute!!  Port Canaveral is a very serious port.  Lots of big fishing boats here and the inlet is very wide and deep.  Hopefully we can get some good local fish tonight for dinner. 

It is definitely “island time” now, and everyone around us in the marina is in shorts and flip flops.  Time to lose the New England boater gear (gloves, hats, boots, and big coats), and break out the margaritas!!  Gotta go, my cocktail is calling me!! 

Friday January 28, 2011 - Ponce de Leon and other such famous sailors….

We finally left our cozy spot in St. Augustine after spending 3 days getting our water maker fixed…yes, now we can use water copiously and wastefully!  Given that we need to run the water maker at least every other day, we are now under pressure to use a lot of water, so we can top up our tank on a regular basis.  Gee, that is going to be really hard to do….!!  We met a wonderful couple, Kevin and Katie, who have a lovely sailboat they keep in the same marina.  Kevin is English, from Chichester, and Katie is from Wisconsin.  They have traveled all over the world, and we found we had quite a lot in common, even down to her and my sapphire blue fiat spider!!  Here’s to you guys, we hope to see you again very soon!!

We had a fabulous cruise from St. Augustine to Ponce de Leon Inlet, about 50 miles on the “outside”.  We had a beautiful sunny day, warm and flat seas.  It was still a bit cool, but we didn’t care, we were heading for the real south!  We anchored just off a mooring field near New Smyrna Beach.  We had to hunt and peck for a good anchoring spot, as the ICW is VERY shallow in that area.  We eventually found a good spot, but had to go through the bascule bridge (hadn’t done one of those in a while!)!!

After an incredibly quiet night, we set off at first light, going through the bascule bridge again, and headed out of the inlet onto Cape Canaveral on the outside.

St. Augustine Monday, January 24, 2011

We arrived at our dock in St. Augustine around 10:30 am after the most stunning overnight run we have ever made!  We had flat seas, no wind, and a half moon to light up the sky.  Even though we ran about 20 hours, 12 of those in the dark, we could barely bring ourselves to take any naps, since we kept popping up on the top deck to have a look at the stars…you could almost reach out and touch them!  WOW!

After docking the boat, we took a walk into the old town of St. Augustine.  While this place has a lot of history, it has become a bit of a tourist trap, with the old downtown Spanish village converted into a Disneyworld type of shopping district selling the usual trinkets and tee-shirts.  The old fort is quite interesting, but has been rebuilt so many times, that not much of the original is left.  In any case, it is a nice enough place for us to spend a couple of days.

Tomorrow the forecast is for rain, and we plan to spend the day indoors cleaning up (a week on the boat even with only two relatively neat people still requires some tlc) and catching up on stuff.  We plan on staying here through Thursday morning, and will post a report on our plans after that. 

Now that we are in Florida, the weather is DEFINITELY improved!  While the nights are still a bit chilly, the daytime temps are getting well into the high 60’s and low 70’s!!  Break out the shorts! 

Again, we are a bit short of photos.  However, we did see this bobcat swimming across the creek in front of our boat a couple of days ago when we were in the ICW  (you can see the cute little "bob" tail).  Pretty amazing!  And you thought cats didn’t like the water!  Roger and Jan, I thought you could train Camden to do this….!!!

Gotta get wet!!

Beaufort, SC Sunday, January 23, 2011

We arrived in Beaufort SC yesterday morning, after spending a beautiful night in a stunning anchorage in the Bull River about 20 miles north of Beaufort.  We were surrounded by dolphins playing and all kinds of birds fishing far into the night.  The full moon had a spectacular rise, and lit up the night sky like broad daylight.

Beaufort is a small but absolutely lovely city.  We met up with Woody and Janet, friends from our Borden Light Marina in Fall River. They spend a few months each year in Hilton Head.   They have a car, and we drove around the town with them in the afternoon, checking out all the lovely old homes in the downtown area.  We ended up in a great bar (of course) where they were having an oyster roast.  Boy, were those oysters good!!!

We seem to have a very good weather window over the next two days to get from here to Florida on the outside.  The general consensus is that the ICW through Georgia is the shallowest, and after our grounding experience, we thought we would miss out Georgia completely, and make the run on the outside from here to St. Augustine.  We think it will take us about 20 hours so if we leave Beaufort around noon today, we should be there by around 8 am tomorrow.  Our weather checks seem to indicate a very good window over the next couple of days to do this.  In fact, the next front is expected sometime late on Tuesday, so our plan is to get there and settle in before that arrives. 

We may spend a few days in St. Augustine looking around, so we will come back with our report on that in a few days.

We're Back!!!!

We arrived in Myrtle Beach on Sunday, January 16^th, after leaving a snowy and cold Boston.  We spent 3 days getting the boat ready, shopping and stocking up with food and liquor….I won’t say how much, but suffice to say it is A LOT!!!

We left early on Thursday morning, and spent the next two days getting our sea legs back.  We had beautiful weather, albeit a bit on the cool side.  But we have heat on the boat, and have kept very snug and warm. 

It is very quiet on the ICW this time of year.  Long gone are the flotillas of sailboats as most of them are already in Florida, waiting to make the crossing to the Bahamas.  While we loved having company on our way on October, it has been a huge bonus to have the waterway to ourselves…a completely different experience. 

On our way yesterday, we saw a bald eagle just 20 feet from our boat on the shore.  He was a sight to see, having just caught a fish.  He must have stood 3 or 4 feet in height, and we had to pinch ourselves to believe we had really seen him.  Of course, the camera was not ready, so alas, we have no proof to show you!

On this leg of our journey down the ICW, we encountered some of the most shallow water we have every crossed in our boat.  Auriga has a 5.5 foot draft, and we never thought we would think of 8 feet of water as “comfortable”.  Needless to say, we did ground a couple of times, but managed to get ourselves free through a combination of teamwork, rising tides, and general good luck! 

Tonight, Friday night, we are anchored in a lovely and quiet creek off the ICW, about 20 miles north of Beaufort SC.  We plan to spend the day in Beaufort tomorrow, visiting with our friends from Borden Light Marina in Fall River, Janet and Woody.  On Sunday, we plan to keep moving south.  We want to get to Florida (and the warmer weather) as quickly as possible.

Aloha for now, and we will get some photos and more updates for you in a few days.