Its been a while since we posted..... I'll try not to bore everyone with the small details. We spent a day and a half in St. Augustine and loved it. It was an amazing history lesson for us. Being the New England snobs that we are, it is easy to forget that Plymouth is not the oldest city in what is now the modern U.S. St. Augustine was settled by Spain in 1585! The amazing Castillo de San Marcos is a National Park that preserves the history of this amazing port city. We visited the fort, an archaeology museum, and the old Flagler Hotel. The architecture was incredible. Win also made a brief stop at the Dr. for some antibiotics for a respiratory infection. On the whole, a worthwhile stopover.
Leaving St. Augustine, we quickly ventured into more typical Florida scenery. "The Ditch" as they call it, passes through some boring, heavily developed areas. We drove hard and made it to Daytona for the night. Thanks to the kindness of some "live aboards" we bummed a ride to a convenience store for milk and eggs. From Daytona we pushed on to Titusville, Fl. Despite the lack of scenery, we were able to spot a few more exciting critters. Win spied the first Manatees and Ben found Roseate Spoonbills. Titusville is an economically depressed city directly across the river from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The end of the Space Shuttle Program has severely affected the area. We were able to camp out on a mooring for short money and await the arrival of my Mom. Unfortunately for Sam, he lost a bet against the kids in a poker game and we were "forced" to take the kids to Disney. After a restful night on the boat the six of us headed to Orlando for two nights and three exhausting days at Disney and Universal Studios. It was a huge culture shock for us to go from the peaceful boat to the theme parks.
We returned to the boat on Thursday and celebrated Ben's birthday with a grilled steak dinner. We are currently underway in 20-30 knot winds..... headed South until dark.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Open Ocean, Wild Horses, Spanish Forts....
Since we last blogged we have tested the sails on the open ocean, visited a National Park, walked on a beach with wild horses, weathered a rain storm, navigated the rest of Georgia's ICW, and arrived in the beautiful port city of St. Augustine, FL. We left St. Simon's Tuesday morning and headed out the cut to the open sea. Unfortunately for the crew we had a rolling sea and not a lot of wind. With four of the five crew feeling pretty poor, Sam was left to bring us down to St. Mary's inlet. We made it safe and sound to an anchorage behind Cumberland Island, GA. The island is a National Park that was gifted by the Carnegie family. We took a short trip over before sunset and were treated to a nearly deserted island with wild horses. Mrs. Carnegie stipulated in her will that her personal horses were to be let free to roam the island. The horses wander the 17 mile long island through a campground, the ruins of the Carnegie mansion, and along the dunes of a spectacular beach. We found beautiful seashells and ponies! It blew hard during the night and rained throughout the next day. We filled the time with schoolwork, projects, baking, etc. When the rain broke in the afternoon, Sam and the big boys went for a bike ride along the island trails to the ruins of the Carnegie mansion. It blew hard again last night and we were treated to a host of rattles and banging noises....not much sleeping for the grown-ups.
We left Georgia waters early this morning and headed down the ICW in Florida. We mistakenly believed that FL had done a better job dredging the waterway.... Even driving the middle of the channel we bumped bottom a few times at low tide. Great excitement for the kids but the skipper simply spun us around and got us going again. The waterway opened up in the afternoon and we entered St. Augustine around 5pm. It was a long, 65 mile day. We are tied up in a slip at the downtown marina for the night. It is a beautiful facility with access to the oldest parts of the city. We strolled a bit downtown tonight after dinner and will do some serious sightseeing tomorrow when we visit the old fort. Lots of fun and a good history lesson. St. Augustine is the oldest port city in what is now the U.S. and it feels like a Spanish city. We will sleep well tonight.....
We left Georgia waters early this morning and headed down the ICW in Florida. We mistakenly believed that FL had done a better job dredging the waterway.... Even driving the middle of the channel we bumped bottom a few times at low tide. Great excitement for the kids but the skipper simply spun us around and got us going again. The waterway opened up in the afternoon and we entered St. Augustine around 5pm. It was a long, 65 mile day. We are tied up in a slip at the downtown marina for the night. It is a beautiful facility with access to the oldest parts of the city. We strolled a bit downtown tonight after dinner and will do some serious sightseeing tomorrow when we visit the old fort. Lots of fun and a good history lesson. St. Augustine is the oldest port city in what is now the U.S. and it feels like a Spanish city. We will sleep well tonight.....
Cumberland Island Photos
Last view of St. Simon's Island before heading out to sea.
Nat at the helm.
Interior of Cumberland Island, GA
They were so close!
Amazing, almost Jurassic looking flora
Sunset
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Heading Through The Skinny ICW In Georgia
The last few days have been terrific. Cold and challenging at times, but terrific. I now understand why most people choose to head outside of the ICW in South Carolina and skip Georgia. The shoaling is pretty extensive in spots and the navigation keeps you on your toes. Not fun watching the sounder hit 6-8' here and there! But we're glad we decided to head through this stretch. The scenery has been phenomenal. The huge expanses of marsh give you a horizon-to-horizon view, almost like a Western landscape. Great wildlife viewing too. And the tricky stretches have given Betsy and me a good opportunity to brush up on our navigation skills and get a feel for how Chere handles in different conditions. Here's what has happened the last few days. (Sorry if these are long and include too many place names; we're using this blog to keep track of things as much for our own purposes as to keep folks up-to-date).
Saturday, Jan 14
We left Hilton Head Saturday morning. It was clear and breezy and very, very cold -- in the high 20s when we woke up. We realize that this probably sounds warm to our friends back home (my buddy Willy told me it was -15 at the top of Cannon that morning). But it felt very wrong to be cruising by white beaches with palm trees when the wind chill hovered around 15 degrees. We had to hit the tides right at a few cuts that day, so we left the dock early and pushed hard down Calibogue Sound and around Daufuskie Island (taken from "da" "first" "key") to Daufuskie Landing, our first tight spot. We cleared that area without much trouble and caught the tide through Walls Cut and then across the Savannah River into Georgia through Elba Island Cut, where again our sounder started to show some pretty shallow depths. The entire section from Daufuski Landing through Elba Island Cut was a bit nerve-wracking with a stiff 20 knot wind, pretty shallow depths and some large commercial traffic heading down the Savannah River just to make things more interesting. But once we made it through that stretch, we had a nice glide down the Wilmington River to Isle of Hope, a small riverside town with some jaw-dropping antebellum architecture. Once again, we saw dolphin everywhere along the way. The marina we stayed at in Isle of Hope had loaner cars, so we were able to head to a local watering hole and watch the first half of the Patriots game while chowing down on a huge basket of fried pickles. Good eats. We car-pooled with a nice couple from Falmouth, MA, who tied up at the same marina right in front of us (in the "Rachael J."). They are one of only two boats that we've run into heading South in the ICW. And we've only passed a handful of boats heading the other way. They've made this trip over 10 times and have given us some great advice over the radio during the last few days.
Sunday, January 15
We all slept well after staying up late to watch the Pats blowout and woke up to another cold morning; ice covered the docks. After debating whether to stay another day, we finally decided that we needed to head out in order for the tides to be right in a few tricky areas on Monday. We were off the dock 15 minutes later and cruising down Skidaway Narrows (yes, it's pretty narrow) past Moon River (yes, that Moon River) and into the Ogeechee River. From there, we headed through the ominous-sounding and somewhat notorious Hell Gate, which is a narrow cut toward the mouth of the Ogeechee River that keeps the guys at SeaTow quite busy. Betsy steered us through that cut and Florida Passage without breaking a sweat; she's a natural at the helm. After another tricky spot we cut across St. Catherine's Sound, down the North Newport River, and then headed waaaaay up an offshoot of the ICW called Wahoo Creek, where we anchored for the night next to a small island in the middle of the marsh. It was an incredibly remote and beautiful spot. Once we were on the hook, the boys and I jumped in the zodiac and headed to the island. It was covered with small palms and large pines and had a earilly Jurassic feel to it. I'll post some pics. One strange thing -- in the middle of this island -- which, again, was in the middle of a marsh miles and miles from anything -- we found an electrical junction box. I half expected it to see "The Darma Initiative" painted on it. That night we hung our shrimp lights over the side of the boat to see what we could attract. No shrimp, but we had fun netting some good sized Silversides. Thank Nana and Grampa for the lights and nets!
Monday, January 16
We were off the hook by 9am and on our way to catch the right tides at the last shallow run we needed to get through in Georgia -- the Little Mud River. The folks we had met back in Isle of Hope had warned us about this stretch, and in fact they had grounded out there last year for a while. After some tense moments here and there with the depth sounder hitting close to 6 feet, we made it through just fine. Betsy and I took turns at the helm and navigating, and the boys enjoyed the views, shipwrecks and dolphin along the way. Toward the end of the trip, one dolphin followed right alongside the cockpit, coming up again and again just feet from the kids. Very cool. We ended the day at the Lanier Island Marina, just off St. Simon's Island. After some showers, fresh laundry and a hot meal, we're all in good shape and ready to head out again. Our plan for today is to do a short outside hop down to Cumberland Island, where we'll spend a day and a couple of nights exploring the island's fort and ruins, and looking for wild ponies and armadillos.
On the big picture side of things, everything is going very, very well. We're all feeling as if Chere is home, the boys have settled into life on a boat, we've all put together good routines when it comes to docking, anchoring, cleaning, navigating, etc. Life is good. We probably won't have the internets for a few days, but we should have cell coverage.
Saturday, Jan 14
We left Hilton Head Saturday morning. It was clear and breezy and very, very cold -- in the high 20s when we woke up. We realize that this probably sounds warm to our friends back home (my buddy Willy told me it was -15 at the top of Cannon that morning). But it felt very wrong to be cruising by white beaches with palm trees when the wind chill hovered around 15 degrees. We had to hit the tides right at a few cuts that day, so we left the dock early and pushed hard down Calibogue Sound and around Daufuskie Island (taken from "da" "first" "key") to Daufuskie Landing, our first tight spot. We cleared that area without much trouble and caught the tide through Walls Cut and then across the Savannah River into Georgia through Elba Island Cut, where again our sounder started to show some pretty shallow depths. The entire section from Daufuski Landing through Elba Island Cut was a bit nerve-wracking with a stiff 20 knot wind, pretty shallow depths and some large commercial traffic heading down the Savannah River just to make things more interesting. But once we made it through that stretch, we had a nice glide down the Wilmington River to Isle of Hope, a small riverside town with some jaw-dropping antebellum architecture. Once again, we saw dolphin everywhere along the way. The marina we stayed at in Isle of Hope had loaner cars, so we were able to head to a local watering hole and watch the first half of the Patriots game while chowing down on a huge basket of fried pickles. Good eats. We car-pooled with a nice couple from Falmouth, MA, who tied up at the same marina right in front of us (in the "Rachael J."). They are one of only two boats that we've run into heading South in the ICW. And we've only passed a handful of boats heading the other way. They've made this trip over 10 times and have given us some great advice over the radio during the last few days.
Sunday, January 15
We all slept well after staying up late to watch the Pats blowout and woke up to another cold morning; ice covered the docks. After debating whether to stay another day, we finally decided that we needed to head out in order for the tides to be right in a few tricky areas on Monday. We were off the dock 15 minutes later and cruising down Skidaway Narrows (yes, it's pretty narrow) past Moon River (yes, that Moon River) and into the Ogeechee River. From there, we headed through the ominous-sounding and somewhat notorious Hell Gate, which is a narrow cut toward the mouth of the Ogeechee River that keeps the guys at SeaTow quite busy. Betsy steered us through that cut and Florida Passage without breaking a sweat; she's a natural at the helm. After another tricky spot we cut across St. Catherine's Sound, down the North Newport River, and then headed waaaaay up an offshoot of the ICW called Wahoo Creek, where we anchored for the night next to a small island in the middle of the marsh. It was an incredibly remote and beautiful spot. Once we were on the hook, the boys and I jumped in the zodiac and headed to the island. It was covered with small palms and large pines and had a earilly Jurassic feel to it. I'll post some pics. One strange thing -- in the middle of this island -- which, again, was in the middle of a marsh miles and miles from anything -- we found an electrical junction box. I half expected it to see "The Darma Initiative" painted on it. That night we hung our shrimp lights over the side of the boat to see what we could attract. No shrimp, but we had fun netting some good sized Silversides. Thank Nana and Grampa for the lights and nets!
Monday, January 16
We were off the hook by 9am and on our way to catch the right tides at the last shallow run we needed to get through in Georgia -- the Little Mud River. The folks we had met back in Isle of Hope had warned us about this stretch, and in fact they had grounded out there last year for a while. After some tense moments here and there with the depth sounder hitting close to 6 feet, we made it through just fine. Betsy and I took turns at the helm and navigating, and the boys enjoyed the views, shipwrecks and dolphin along the way. Toward the end of the trip, one dolphin followed right alongside the cockpit, coming up again and again just feet from the kids. Very cool. We ended the day at the Lanier Island Marina, just off St. Simon's Island. After some showers, fresh laundry and a hot meal, we're all in good shape and ready to head out again. Our plan for today is to do a short outside hop down to Cumberland Island, where we'll spend a day and a couple of nights exploring the island's fort and ruins, and looking for wild ponies and armadillos.
On the big picture side of things, everything is going very, very well. We're all feeling as if Chere is home, the boys have settled into life on a boat, we've all put together good routines when it comes to docking, anchoring, cleaning, navigating, etc. Life is good. We probably won't have the internets for a few days, but we should have cell coverage.
Heading Through The Skinny ICW In Georgia
A very choppy Hilton Head.
Drainer tide at Skull Creek. 
Deer along the shore.
COLD!!!!!!
Skidaway Narrows bridge.
Capt. Hazlewood asleep at the nav station.
Movie time!
Spanish Moss and oaks line the streets in downtown Isle of Hope.
Isle of Hope house.
The boys and I went to church in Isle of Hope (well, we looked at one).
Betsy steering us through the notorious Hell Gate and Florida Passage. No problem!
Interesting shorelines everywhere.
White Pellicans hanging out on a spit.
Heading off to explore The Island.
At anchor in the Wahoo River. Kind of pretty.
Sunrise on the Wahoo.Saturday, January 14, 2012
Safe and sound in Georgia
We made it through a couple of shallow cuts in a nasty, cold wind and are safely tied to a dock at Isle of Hope, GA. Photos and details to follow. Still cold but we are making good progress. We've secured a car to take us to a restaurant/bar to watch the Patriots beat the Broncos!
Friday, January 13, 2012
And We're Off!
The last two days have been busy, eventful and fun! Here's a quick summary:
Thursday, January 12
We left the dock in Church Creek early in the morning, excited to get underway but also wary of getting through the maze of uncharted bars that the delivery captain, who owns the dock we were using, had been warning us about for the past week. GPS is useless in the creek (it showed us going over dry land) and the water is too murky to see any structure, so all we had to help us navigate were a few recent aerial photos of the creek from the local county, and some instructions scribbled on a sketch of the creek that the delivery captain gave me. After making it through the first few bars on the rising tide without any problems, we managed to bump on the end of the last bar. But after 5 minutes, we were floating free and on our way. To paraphrase Nigel Calder, if you're not touching bottom, you're likely to be missing some excellent gunkholing possiblities. That's certainly the case with the upper end of Church Creek.
The rest of the day was excellent, with Betsy and I navigating through miles and miles of the incredibly beautiful but desolate lowlands of South Carolina. It felt great to be heading South. Throughout the day, we saw loads of ducks, merganser, pellicans and shorebirds, and pod after pod of bottlenose dolphin. Quite a few of them followed alongside the boat and our zodiac (which we were towing) and put on a show for the kids. I'll try to post some photos or a video. Eventually, we came to our first bridge. Like many bridges along the ICW, this bridge was a "fixed" bridge with a height of 65', the minimum fixed bridge height in the ditch, as the ICW is fondly known. Our mast is 59' tall, which gives us a few feet off wiggle-room. But I have to say that my heart was in my throat as I watched the masthead pass under the span.
After weaving through a few shallow "cuts" that connect different creek systems, we passed close by a marine base north of Beaufort, SC that is home to seven squadrons of FA-18 Super Hornets. About 10-15 put on a private airshow for us, with a few swinging overhead really, really low. Darn those things are loud. Soon after, we came to the Ladies Island Bridge, which is a swing bridge in downtown Beaufort, SC. The kids had a blast watching the bridge swing open and waving to the bridge keeper as we passed by. 10 minutes later we were tied up at the Port Royal marina, where we rode out a nastly blow last night. I saw the anemometer hit close to 40 knots at one point. After toasting our first day over a great dinner, we all crawled into our bunks and fell asleep despite the noise in the rigging. A great start to our trip.
Friday, January 13
What a difference a day makes. When we went to bed, it was about 60 degrees; when we woke up, it was about 30 degrees. With the stiff W wind, it felt even colder. Over our morning coffee,
Betsy and I figured out where we were going to head next, and when. We checked the weather, tides and charts and decided to keep moving south through Georgia in the ICW, as opposed to heading out to the ocean and making an outside run. The stretch of the ICW through Georgia is known for its shoaling and shallow cuts, and to make sure that we hit the next series of cuts at the right tide (rising), we needed to be about 20 miles further down the ICW by the afternoon. So after Betsy finished up morning school with the kids and I finished a few projects on the boat, we cast off the lines and caught the outgoing tide down to Paris Island, and then up Port Royal Sound to Skull Creek. After poking around one anchorage and deciding that it wouldn't work, we tied up at Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head Island. We then went for a walk down to Fort Mitchell, which is a civil war fort that the Union built to prevent Confederate troop and ships -- especially the ironclad CSS Atlanta -- from heading from Savannah to Port Royal Sound. Pretty cool. Back to the boat for dinner and some facetime chatting with friends back home, and then we're off to bed. Our plan is to head down to either Thunderbolt or Isle of Hope tomorrow. And if at all possible, we'll try to catch some of the Pats/Broncos game, somewhere. Go Pats!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Working late
Still preparing the boat for tomorrow's departure; moving fuel,tying down surf boards, filling the water tanks, closing up the car, stowing food, stubbing toes, feeding children...... We are leaving in the morning with the incoming tide and depending on the weather and the bridge schedule we may push to Beaufort. The boys enjoyed the first half of the rainy day with Legos and schoolwork. It was raining and blowing hard. The change in the weather makes us want to go further south!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Almost Ready
Not too much to report today. Another beautiful day down here, other than the fact that I spent a good chunk of it finishing up replumbing the forward head. The good news is that it's done (whew!), working well, and that SMELL is gone. The bad news is that my boys learned a few new words today, most of them while I was hunched under the sink wrenching out old sewage hose. Fun stuff. I also tackled the wifi antenna. Those of you who know my computer skills can imagine how that went. But somehow it works, and we now have wifi on the boat, borrowed from a distant hotspot somewhere down the shore.
Betsy continues to make lots of supplies disappear everywhere on the boat and make sure that the boat is shipshape for departure. She's quite the magician. We're now thinking that between the weather and tides (the dock owner tells me getting out of this creek is very tricky -- stay tuned for an interesting entry) we'll plan on shoving off first thing Thursday morning, heading down the ICW toward Beaufort, SC.
It's starting to rain outside, so I'm going to hunker down and head to bed. We love hearing from everyone, so keep the emails/posts coming. More later . . . . Sam
Betsy continues to make lots of supplies disappear everywhere on the boat and make sure that the boat is shipshape for departure. She's quite the magician. We're now thinking that between the weather and tides (the dock owner tells me getting out of this creek is very tricky -- stay tuned for an interesting entry) we'll plan on shoving off first thing Thursday morning, heading down the ICW toward Beaufort, SC.
It's starting to rain outside, so I'm going to hunker down and head to bed. We love hearing from everyone, so keep the emails/posts coming. More later . . . . Sam
Monday, January 9, 2012
Another beautiful morning in Charleston... We feel spoiled. Big news of the day is that while fishing, Win spotted a dolphin in our creek (for those of you who know Win it won't surprise you that he was still in his jammies). He thought it was a seal and was a bit startled to see it right next to the boat. Yesterday we were treated to a carriage ride through downtown Charleston. It was the most amazing collection of pre-revolutionary buildings I have EVER seen. Sam and I were drooling. We stowed the rest of our gear and had a pizza party at Nana and Grampa's hotel to watch the Broncos game. GO BRONCOS! We'll have to make sure that next Sat night we have good wi-fi so we can watch the big game on the computer. Today we'll work out our itinerary for the next few days. It will be fun to see the waterway!
Family Dinner Night
Rooster named "CHANDLER" at the carriage barn
Morning landscape for Amanda
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Another beautiful day in Charleston
The last two days have been in the high sixties and low seventies. It is beautiful on our creek. Yesterday we avoided chores and spent several hours at the Charleston Naval History museum. We were able to tour an aircraft carrier and a submarine. It was fascinating. They also have a reconstruction of a Vietam War base camp. Grampa explained to the boys how it was similar to and different from his experience in the war. We all learned a lot! We finished up the day at Sticky Fingers barbecue in downtown Charleston; great ribs, fried corn on the cob, sweet potatoe fries and bread pudding - yum. Today the boys went to Boone Plantation with Nana and Grampa. They learned a lot about cotton farming, brick making, pecan trees and most importantly about the role that slaves played in the South. Sam and I drove around town, did laundry, visited West Marine, Walmart, Lowes and the Piggly Wiggly. Sam removed to holding tank from one of our heads - brave man! The boat is shaping up and we are crossing lots of projects off our list. We had our first dinner on the boat with Nana and Grampa. It is beginning to feel like home.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
ON BOARD!
We made it to Charleston and found our boat safe and sound in a beautiful creek. We drove in a long road with stately trees, spanish moss and saw palmettos - a true Southern lane. We have mountains of bags to unload and lots of gear to stow but we have plenty of help. Nana and Grampa arrived at the dock and it was fun to see the kids giving them a tour of the boat. We witnessed the first of many beautiful sunsets. Nana and Grampa generously treated us to a nice Italian dinner and we are all heading to bed early. It is supposed to be in the high sixties tomorrow and sunny.
Fireworks stop at South of the Border
Four States and a District
Long but fun day yesterday. Said our goodbyes to Lisa, Olivia, Peter, Isabel and our cat Stanley in the morning, then headed down to DC to exchange some clothes on M Street in Georgetown and pick up Nat's braces at Mintz's DC office (thanks again Emily and Kathleen for all the help). Next was a car tour of the city, followed up with a few hours at the Air and Space Museum. Very cool! Back in the car for a long ride down to Fayetteville, NC where we spent the night. Everyone crashed hard and slept well in what was likely our last night in a real bed for quite a while. Off to Charleston, SC this am; everyone is excited to see my parents and the boat. And it's a lot warmer this morning than it was yesterday morning in PA . . . .
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
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