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!
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