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.

Epilogue Part I: Arrived at Osprey Marina, North Myrtle Beach:

On Monday afternoon, we arrived at Osprey Marina, our final destination of this leg of our journey.  We had a relatively easy run to the Marina, only having to pass through two swing bridges!!  The day was lovely, sunny and warm, and we floated into our spot on the dock at about 2 pm.  We now have a few days to clean up, fuel up, and get the boat ready for a 2 month hibernation until we come back in mid-January to embark on the second part of our adventure, onwards to Florida and then onto the  Bahamas. 

We have truly had a wonderful adventure.  We had good weather and bad, but all together, a very successful delivery cruise.  The last part of our journey, through the Intracoastal Waterway, was truly delightful, with a community of cruisers who were all heading south like us.  We saw many unusual sights (unusual for us, anyway!) including new landscapes, birds, bridges, and many glorious sunsets and sunrises.  We were fortunate to have no mishaps, groundings, or otherwise mechanical problems to plague us, and so we feel pretty lucky.  We learned a lot about ourselves, and even though we work very well together as a team, this journey taught to rely on each other even more, and to stay focused on the important elements of navigation, good housekeeping, and discipline.

Living on a boat for an extended period of time teaches you to be frugal (with water), to pay attention to little details like “where did I put that flashlight” and “did I take my vitamins today”.  So many of the little things that we take for granted when we have our routines at home are taken over by the more important aspects of paying attention to safety, like “watch our for that power boat trying to overtake us”  and “is the anchor set properly”.  Meals also need more planning, as you never know what the road ahead for the day is going to bring, so having sandwiches and snacks at the ready is also critical.  I won't even get into how many days between showers….

In any case, we are finishing the first part of our adventure, and fly home on Sunday.  When we return in January, we head off for Florida, where we plan to spend a few days to take care of some repairs, meet up with some friends, and then look for the window to make the trip across to the Bahamas.  We will pick up our blog again at that time, and hope to have many funny and interesting stories to tell.  Until then, hasta la vista and thanks to all for coming along for the ride.  Your comments and notes made us feel good!!





 Chris & Irina

Ve Must Haf a Clean Anchor!!



Katharine:  these are for you...Irina trying to hold the boat!!





Floating Casino!



The last swing bridge...



Cable cars crossing!

Turtles sunbathing



I guess I lost count of the swing bridges....there was one more!



Final Destination:  Osprey Marina, North Myrtle Beach!!

And you thought all the bridges were done.....

Today was supposed to be an easy but long run of about 60 miles from Carolina Beach to Calabash Creek.  We started off a bit later than usual, with the clock change, around 9 am.  We made great time through Cape Fear River and the inlet, and had a pickup of almost 2 knots from the tide going with us.  By around 2 pm, we were about 10 miles away from our anchorage, and were planning to go through a pontoon bridge that opened on the hour at 3 pm.  We were moving along in a convoy of about 10 sailboats, and a few power boats approaching the bridge, when we heard on the radio that due to the very low tide, the 3 pm opening was canceled!  The bridge tender said he would most likely open at 4 pm, after the tide had a chance to come up a bit. 

We decided to anchor in the middle of the ICW rather than do wheelies in the channel.  We dropped our anchor, and hung out for almost an hour, when the bridge announced he would open at 4 pm.  We cruised through the bridge in the company of all our sail and power boat friends, and all converged on two cozy anchorages about 3 miles on.  Most of the sailboats anchored off in the shallower anchorage, and we anchored in a slightly deeper, wider channel, that is the inlet from the Atlantic Ocean called the Little River Inlet.  Since we anchored, we have seen the most fantastic sunset with the new moon over Myrtle Beach, as well as two “phantom” fishing boats coming home from fishing in the ocean.   

By the way, we just heard on the radio that the pontoon bridge we crossed earlier is now shut down for a malfunction!  I guess we got lucky to get through even though we  thought at the time we were unlucky!!  Anyone who didn’t make the  4 pm opening is totally screwed!! 

We just saw the big gambling boat “AQUA-CINO” go by in stealth mode, with not many people on it (it is pretty cold here tonight) but way too many slot machines!!

Tomorrow we arrive at our destination in Myrtle Beach.  I just put the bottle of champagne in the refrigerator so it is nice and cold when we get there mid-afternoon!

We will write the Part I Epilogue to our journey tomorrow.  We leave Myrtle Beach on Sunday to fly back to Boston. 

Katharine, we are taking photos tomorrow of us just for you!




White headed pelicans



Crossing the pontoon bridge






Moonrise over Myrtle Beach...



Ghost Fishing Boat