St.Augustine to Georgetown, SC

After leaving St.Augustine, we have been making our way North up the ICW... funny, it only took one day of travel in the ICW to turn the swim platforms a yellowish color.. needless to say , it's not the beautiful clear water of the Bahamas... but the ICW has her own beauty.. the birds, the porpoises and just the beauty of the shoreline with the marshes, etc... I missed seeing the Pelicans in the islands.. there were none..and very few porpoises ... but so many here... I'm loving it...

We had an issue with the generator and dropped anchor at Cumberland Island.. GodSpeed was still traveling with us.. so the boys worked on the SeaVeyor while Lorrie and I rowed over to the island to walk a little..the current was strong, so I'm sure it was a hoot to the boys and others in the anchorage to watch Lorrie and I try to get to and from the island!! ( thier motor was not on their dinghy at the time) Anyway, Lorrie and I made it and walked for about three hours.. Cumberland is a beautiful place, I had mentioned it in an earlier blog... We saw the ponys and the ruins, snakes, armadillos, and a flock of wild turkeys...Lorrie even climbed a tree....needless to say we were having fun (while the boys were working hard on the SV) Towards the end of our walk, my camera (Canon 5D) had a major issue.. the mirror detached! I was heartbroken.... but it can be fixed.. had to box it up and send back to Canon... this camera body has had this problem and they will stand behind it , thank goodness, and I should have it back by the time we reach Beaufort..

We made our way back to the boat and the boys had the problem solved and the part replaced... thank goodness for spare parts....

We pulled anchor and then made our way to St. Simons and stayed there for the evening... Along the way, we were under attack !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The attack of the Greenheads.. it was almost comical... we were swatting like mad .. and not even making a dent!! We passed a trawler that had an enclosed upper deck and Dwayne was trying to cut a deal to swap boats!! Ha!! they were laughing! The next day, we got smart.. sprayed each other down with bug spray and just let them fly around... that worked better... they have been with us the whole march to Georgetown, but not as bad as the first two days...

While at St.Simons, we got an appetizer from the restaurant at Golden Isles Marina.. SHRIMP. it was the first shrimp we had since we left Morehead back in November.. So good.. You could not find shrimp in the islands, unless it was a bag of farmraised ,frozen 30 count, nasty freezor burned shrimp.. you could get a 2lb bag for around $48.oo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left out from St. Simons Island around 10am and caught up with GodSpeed , who had pulled anchor earlier, the tide was low and rising as we traveled thru Little Mud River.. another catamaran ahead of us was having problems and could not seem to get through this one spot.. they had turned around and were waiting to see what we would do... Dwayne took the SeaVeyor thru without any problems, but it was definitley skinny water.. the other catamaran followed our path and made it thru. and GodSpeed followed suit..... However, Pat and Lorrie on GodSpeed were not able to get thru another skinny spot in the Mud River and had to wait on the tide to rise... We turned around and came back to see if we could assist, but they opted to wait on the tide. . So , we continued on..While Pat and Lorrie were waiting on the tide to rise, another sailboat was approaching the skinny spot.. Pat tried to warn them by radio , but they did not respond.. He even waved at them with the radio in his hand, trying to get their attention... with no luck! Yep, they went aground!!! Pat thought they were French Canadians.. They came on the radio..(all wearing full Gill Offhore Suits ) and announced they were aground, but had a problem ..BUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Pat was rolling in the cockpit laughing at that statement.. obviously, the greenheads were a bigger issue than going aground! We dropped anchor in the Wahoo River around 4:30 and GodSpeed made it in around 6pm... We had a wonderful evening on the SeaVeyor.. steaks, potatoes, and salad.. (we ate inside the SeaVeyor--greenies still around) and planned our next leg of journey... our vessels were doing some weird dancing that nite in the current and wind, but all was OK..

The next day we made our way to Skull Creek, in the Hilton Head area, nice little anchorage. Had a pleasant evening.. the next morning we headed towards Beaufort, SC.. to dock at my favorite people in the whole wide world's dock.. TP and Susan.. got in a little after lunch and TP gave us their van and the tour of Beaufort again.. sent off my camera to Canon for repairs.. got a new shop vac.. and all was good!!!!!!!! Had a wonderful meal with them.. Next morning, we had breakfast with TP and Susan.. He makes the best baked eggs on the East Coast!! Got underway by10:30am.. and had a good day..made Wapoo Creek, just around the corner from the Charleston Mega dock, around 5:30pm... It was a very pretty spot , well protected from the ICW, not much room for multiple boats, but we were fine... The next morning we made our little trek to the Charleston Mega Dock . We worked all day on cleaning, inside and out, laundry etc... Darlene, Dwayne's sis, picked us up at the docks and we had a wonderful evening and meal with them...It was so good to see family and see how much Madison, our niece had grown into a lovely young lady... much like her Mom... She had played in two tennis matches and won them both!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was als0 my brothers' birthday, so enjoyed calling him and catching up.. he had just won a Best In Show for his 57 Chevy Truck in an antique car show!!!!!!!!!! All is Good!~

Ok, so from Charleston, we made our way to George Town, SC... Had a nice anchorage at the end of the town area.. had a restful nite.....

We pulled anchor around 8:30am and headed towards Little River/Calabash... Dwayne let me "drive" part of the way, and it was awesome,, although I think he stressed worse than I did.Ha!!!!!!!!!!! I gave the helm back to him , happily, and he made our way to Calabash... It was not the best of anchorages,, hard to find the right spot and the right holding...but we finally did. We dinghed in to the Calabash area to the restaurants.. When will we ever learn... We cook so much better ourselves.. needless to say , we were disappointed in the food.. should have just bought some fresh shrimp ( which we were craving ) Anyway, made it back to the SeaVeyor in less than an hour... we read some and crashed..

Next morning , we were off to Carolina Beach, to meet up with our dear friends Barry and Soula. Made good time and dropped anchor by 1:30pm.... Barry and Soula had already put their boat in to meet us, and we had a homecoming of sorts shortly there after!! After much needed showers, we dinghed in to shore and Soula picked us up to take us to their beautiful warm home! We had an outstanding meal of fresh Carolina Shrimp, Rib Eye Steaks, and some Shovel Nose Lobsters/aka Slipper Tails, her wonderful Tomatoe salad with Feta cheese( straight from her home land of Greece).... Whew... I'm still full!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We pulled anchor this am and made our way to Swansboro..... Morehead/Beaufort in our sights for tomorrow.............. Hopefully, my camera will be waiting on me there!!!

More news at 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Green Turtle Cay to USA!

Wow... this one is hard to post.. We can't believe how fast the time has flown by....what a wonderful experience it has been...

We left Green Turtle Cay for our three day leg back to the states.. The voyage from GT to Great Sale was very nice.. not too much wind and not to rough... There was nothing on Great Sale, but a nice , protected stopping point to anchor on our first nite... We dropped anchor around 2pm and GodSpeed was right behind, and Paragon right behind them... We all jumped in and went swimming.. it felt so good!!! GodSpeed invited all over for Happy Hour and some fried Spanish Mackerel bites ( that he caught along the way, that day) We all talked about what we enjoyed the most and all of our adventures.. Very fun nite... The next leg was to Memory Rock area on the Little Bahama Banks... The wind picked up quite a bit and it was a choppy ride.. when we anchored, we knew we were in for a not so fun nite... The Banks are right on the edge of the ocean side and the depts drop off almost immediately.... We made it thru the nite, although , the sailing vessels had it a little bit rougher... everyone pulled anchor just at daybreak and off we went again.... still rough seas and wind, but not as bad as the prior day... We started seeing land about noon time.... Could not believe we were seeing the USA for the first time in 5 months.... We made it into Ft. Pierce inlet mid afternoon and anchored just off the Causeway Island area... God Speed made it in behind us.. Paragon made their way to Manatee Pocket to meet up with family.. We had burgers on SeaVeyor and we all crashed early... The next day we all shared a cab, along with some new friends from Canada on Knot Ha Gan, and made our way to the airport to check back in with customs... All went well and back to the marina for lunch, then walked to stores in the area.... made our way back to dinghy and back to our vessels... From FT Pierce we then traveled to Cocoa Beach and anchored out just as a storm was approaching.. Captain Dwayne immediately started scrubbing our decks in hope to get a good rinse from Mother Nature.. and yes, she obliged! God Speed was right behind and anchored just after the storm passed.... The next morning God Speed left at daylight and I captured a great sunrise pic of them.. It looked like one of their sails had skewered the sun!!

From Cocoa we made our way to Daytona and enjoyed another restful evening on board...

It is amazing how much wildlife and marine life that you see on the ICW.... that was the one thing that surprised me about the Bahamas... the areas we were in did not seem to have much of either.. I suppose that lack of fresh water is one reason for the lack of bird life and did not see many porpoises either.......maybe next time...

Since traveling up the ICW, we've seen manatees, porpoises, pelicans, cranes, ibis, ospreys, and even Mr. Toothy... alligator.. he was hanging out in the Haulover Canal Bridge area... Big Fella with big overbite!

We are in St. Augustine now and hope to shove off in the am and head towards Fernandino Beach and continue to make our way up ICW.....

It's funny going back and reading my journal on the way down the ICW.... we have learned so much ! St. Augustine is a beautiful city..it was founded back in 1565!!! Yesterday they had festivites at the fort, Castillo de San Marcos and a pirate ship was firing on them from our anchorage!! Very cool.... We dinghyed to shore last nite and had dinner at a great little restaurant, sat outside under a pergola that had jasmine all over it.. beautiful and the aroma was wonderful.. food wasn't too bad either!!

More news at 11.................

Marsh Harbor to Green Turtle Cay

Marsh Harbor was lots of fun, very modern...found a good conch horn, as you could see from our last blog's pics...Dwayne is starting to blow it now at sunset with me and he outblows me (hmmm.. more hot air! HA!We were able to fill our water tanks on Monday.. had a good amount of rain and used the water collection system on SeaVeyor. Thank you Mother nature and the Poles!! On Tuesday we provisioned with fuel, groceries and another laundry run.....afterwards, had sundowners on Hocus Pocus (another Catamaran) and GodSpeed came over too..fun time had by all.

On Wednesday we pulled anchor and were getting ready to go and noticed that GodSpeed was having some difficulty... their anchor was stuck on some sort of old cable or chain. Pat ended up having to dive on it and before Dwayne could put our dinghy in the water to help him,another cruiser in his dinghy came by and helped him release it..We were all under way after that.. The cruise to Green Turtle was not too long. The hardest part was having to pass thru Whale Channel. You must leave the Sea of Abaco and go thru this channel and then back to the Sea of Abaco to reach Green Turtle Cay.The waters in the inland sea just south of Green Turtle are very shallow with shoals, etc..So, one must go out the Whale Channel and then back in. This channel can be very dangerous when the conditions are poor.... high seas can cause "rages",which are powerful swells and you do not even think about crossing .... When we made the cross thu the channel, it was not smooth, but not too bad either.. We arrived in White Sound and dropped anchor mid afternoon... settled in for the evening after making sure our ground tackle was holding.. it's very grassy on the bottom here and not ideal for holding, but we have been fine.. thanks to our Rocna anchor...

Woke up to a beautiful day on Thursday, April 29th. We dinghed to shore along with Pat and Lorrie from GodSpeed. We took my little foldup bike "PeeWee" and Dwayne had to rent one.. Pat and Lorrie had their own bikes with them. Off we went for a day of exploration. The island is only about 3 miles long, so we were in Black Sound and the New Plymouth settlement fairly quickly..New Plymouth is a very quaint settlement with Old World charm. It was developed from the loyalists(British) that left America after the Revolutionary War.. We visited the Albert Lowe museum which gives a fasinating history of the island and it's inhabitants.. the old photographs and paintings were awesome.. The Hurricane of 1932 devasted the island and the before and after pics were something to see..We were guided thru the museum and given the information by it's caretaker, a local islander. She was very gracious and very informative and loved giving us the input on each and every photo, etc..We also visited Vert's Model Ship Shoppe.. He is a son of Albert Lowe (one of the founding locals) He was very happy to give us the lowdown on all of his ships, etc in his shop.. We also made it over to The Wrecking Tree restaraunt and had cracked conch, conch salad,and my favorite, grouper fingers..and of course a round of Kaliks (Bahamian beer) in honor of Lorrie's birthday.

We went ashore again on Friday, April 30th.. This is the weekend that Green Turtle has their homecoming festivites... they had their prime minister, Marching Military Bands, lots of kids singing Bahamian songs, lots of food etc and of course, sessions on how to be a pirate, etc.. We enjoyed their grilled BBQ and spicy rice and made our way back into town for some coconut ice cream... then back to SeaVeyor.. The boys decided to try some bone fishing and took the dinghy back to shore and walked over to the flats side.. so Lorrie and I followed in her dinghy and found the path to the ocean side and walked the beach..It was a wonderful day.. This island will be one of my favorites, I'm sure!

Today is Saturday.. May 1st, can not believe it's already here.. We will be watching the weather closely now , waiting on a good weather window to make our crossing back over to the states...

More news at 11........... Linda ,Dwayne and the Cats