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So despite my usual format of chronicling our adventures chronologically, I am going to break from form here and combine our posts from where I left off (our trip to get to Little Palm Island) to here (Bimini, Bahamas).  We were in Key West for quite a while, more on that later in the blog, but we had absolutely ROTTEN internet!  I tried to post about our stay at Little Palm Island no less than 6 times, and every time the connection went dead… could be because we were sitting out about 1/2 a mile from shore in a mooring field, so I suppose in most regards, the fact that we even got “some” internet access was amazing, but it did lead to much frustration on keeping the blog updated!  All that being said… Little Palm Island…

We had called ahead to make sure that it would be OK for us to arrive a little earlier than we’d originally thought we’d be able to get to Little Palm Island - no problem of course.  That was the theme of our entire stay at Little Palm Island.  What an AMAZING place it is.  The motto there is “Do Nothing, Time is too Precious to Waste”, and they really take that to heart there.  We followed the directions that had been given to us by the dockmaster and at about 11AM we were approaching our desingated slip, with a welcoming crew there to help us with tie up… unfortunately, our 5′1″ draft was deeper than the pathway to the slip… just sand, but we weren’t able to get our boat to the slip - apparently there had been some exceptionally drastic tides over the previous week, and our timing was such that we were coming in just after low tide.  Chris - who seems to be the concierge of the resort - hailed us and directed us to turn around and tie up at the Sunset Dock which was just around the bend.  We easily pulled up alongside, and Chris and one of the other guys secured us up against the dock.  We got ourselves pulled together… one of the funny things about arriving somewhere on your own sailboat is that you are effectively bringing your whole “house” along with you, and given the variance we’d seen in the weather, we hadn’t really packed our overnight bag for our arrival.  Just after we pulled up, the resort’s boat the Woodman pulled in, and Chris went to assist the passengers with their arrival.  Most of the guests went with their luggage up to the resort, except for one other couple, Richard and Janet… who were from Boston!!  They were returning for a 20th anniversary (I think I have that right) and we were pulled together enough by that point that we got to walk up to the resort and get a tour with them, as neither of our rooms were quite ready.  I would swear to you - although it still hasn’t come to me from where - that I had met them before, Richard in particular.  We chatted about Boston a little as we got a tour of the resort’s beautiful grounds, and after Richard and Janet settled in on the beach for a few moments to await their rooms, Chris took Brian and I over to the Quarterdeck, where he let us take a refreshing shower in the changing room and then we settled in by the pool while we waited for our room to be ready - but really I should say suite!  Chris came and collected us from by the pool and we walked along the palm fronded, meandering sand paths to the most exquisite guest suite I have ever seen.  We were in Woodpecker Suite - a thatched roof bungalow, with a wrapped porch looking out over the water, a living room, that by simply sliding the glass doors open transformed into an open air living room, a spacious bedroom with a butterfly net enclosed king-sized bed (that you needed a step to climb into), and a bathroom larger than our entire boat footrpint - with a two person jacuzzi spa and a stall shower that had three sets of jets capped by a rainshower!  Oh and an outdoor enclosed shower!  Every detail, every amenity had been thought of, to the wooden letter sign that said Hunter at the crook in our staircase leading to the porch, to the chilled bottle of champange set out awaiting us, the ultra plush robes and slippers, and loads of towels!  Chris walked us through our suite, showing us the amenities (and how to use the great but super complicated espresso maker in our room) and then left us, encouraging us to make use of the resort’s many amenities… including a life-sized chess game where folks who work at Little Palm actually move the pieces for you while you sit in throne like chairs!  Brian and I just looked around in awe - we didn’t even know where to begin, except that we were both starving, so we headed back over to the pool area bar, where they serve lunch until 4:30, and grabbed a sandwich and a mojito.  We strolled along the beach, sat for a while in some of the deluxe lounge chairs in a secluded little corner and just relaxed.  We had made a reservation for 7:30, and after a swim in the pool, we headed back to our rooms to change for dinner.

Like everything else at Little Palm Island, no detail has been missed when it comes to the food - it is outstanding.  We were able to get a fantastic seat outside, right on the water’s edge and fairly close to the outdoor firepit (which is very cool, fire bubbles up through a water fountain, something to do with propane, but it’s beautiful and romantic and soothing).  We had an absolutely AMAZING dinner, the best lobster risotto I have ever had hands down, and we shared a fantastic bottle of wine and some beignets for dessert - absolutely to die for.  We were so relaxed that we decided after sitting by the fire for a little while we should return back to our room and turn in early so that we could make the most of our next day there.  We’d signed up to go SCUBA in the afternoon, a much needed refresher since we just got our certification in April, and we’re planning lots of diving while we’re in the islands.

We got back to our room to find that we’d received a lovely turn down service, along with a little present of some seashells - a lovely touch.  It was so glorious to be able to sleep in a king sized bed, that didn’t move while we slept (or rather the whole building didn’t move while we slept) and with really enough room for Bri and I who are both tall.

We slept like babies, getting up in the morning to find a newspaper outside of our room, had a lovely cup of latte on our porch in the super plush robes, and then dressed for the day and made our way up to the restaurant for breakfast - amazing!  After breakfast, we took one of the resort’s little powerboats and went for a ride around the island and got to take a look through the bird sanctuary - we saw a great blue heron, tons of cranes, mockingbirds and all kinds of birds I couldn’t identify.  Really neat!  We also saw a sea turtle, swimming lazily along which was really cool.  After our boat ride we lounged by the pool, taking a brief swim, and then went back to our suite to gather up our dive gear, which we dropped off at the quarterdeck before heading over for lunch.  Despite it being a little rough, the dive was still on, so we headed back to the Quarterdeck and Dive Shop to meet up with the divemaster.

We had an absolutely amazing two dives with Bob and Larry… on our way out to Looe Key we saw a spotted eagle ray jumping and flying out of the water - really cool!  We were the only folks on the dive, so it was a great experience and a wonderful refresher for us.  I had been quite nervous about diving on our own with our new Brownie - since the last dive’s we’d done were our qualifying dives in April.  We saw all kinds of amazing sea life on our dives-nurse sharks, a Golliath Grouper (which is HUGE!), a Hawksbill Turtle, Lion Fish, a Grey Angelfish and tons of parrot fish and gobies.  Really beautiful!  Despite the fact that it was somewhat rough topsides, it was clear and beautiful under the water and warm - which was lovely.

After our dives we made use of the hot tub before heading over to the boat to check on Skipper, feed her, and make sure that we’d “battened down the hatches” as we could see a weather front approaching us.  During dinner the thunderstorm struck, with an accompanying downpour - it made for a very romantic background in our window seats in the restaurant.  We had an absolutely amazing dinner and  then took the remaining wine back to our room, where we sat in the living room and watched the storm play across the water.

We awoke the net morning, sad that we were leaving Little Palm, but completely relaxed and refreshed.  We pulled ourselves together, and went up for another delicious breakfast.  We went and checked on Skipper, and did a couple of little preparations to be able to leave, then availed ourselves of one last multidirectional super hot shower in our deluxe accomodations, before calling the Quarterdeck to let them know that we were set to check out.  They arrived to take our bags to the boat, and once we were settled, gave us some much needed assistance to get off of the dock (as the wind was coming directly at our side) and we glided out into the channel and headed further south to Key West.

We had a great sail to Key West doing about 6kts with about half of the Genny out, and we turned into Key West’s channel at about 4 in the afternoon.  We had to make our way up the channel (to the North) and around an island to reach the mooring field at Key West Garrison Bight, where we were planning to stay to wait out the Northern winds.  As we turned back to the south, coming around the island, we were stopped by a guy on a jetski, who directed us out of the channel as the Navy had divers down in the channel doing a training exercise… not a huge deal except that by this point it was starting to get dark, and we were concerned about getting a mooring ball secured before it got too dark.  We navigated into the mooring field, where we’d been directed to pick up any ball except for one with a red tag on it, as those balls were a part of the scheduled maintainance… tons of balls, should be fine right?  wrong, the first three we approached had the dreaded red tag on them.  We finally found a mooring ball that was ok, and I snagged it with the boat hook on the first pass… except I got the hook stuck in the ball, and ended up snapping the hook!  C**P!!  As we made another pass to try to grab the broken off hook, still caught in the mooring ball, our neighbor Drew, from the boat next to us, came zipping over in his dinghy and offered to give us a hand.  Thank goodness, I didn’t know how we were going to pull this off without the hook!  He got us securely affixed to the mooring ball with the required two lines, and after many thanks, returned to his boat for the evening and we settled in for the night.  Thank goodness we were on a mooring ball, because the wind was really gusty, and from the North - the one disadvantage to being in the mooring field rather than at anchor was that the mooring field is protected from all sides except the North, so it was a pretty rough night, but the anchorage had been extremely crowded, and from accounts later, there were a half a dozen boats in the anchorage that dragged either ashore or into other boats in the following days.

We spent the next two days on the boat waiting for the wind and waves to die down before going ashore, but we spent that time well, taking care of reorganizing some of our stuff, and doing some projects that we’d wanted to take care of - like getting the salt water sprayer re-hooked up.  Finally on our third day, we went ashore - did our official check in with the city marina, and then dinghied over to the dingy dock and walked into town.  We had a great time exploring downtown Key West, eating lunch at a little place that was shaded by vines, and walking to the Sunset Pier to watch the sun go down (with about 200 other people) before heading over to a Cuban restaurant we’d found where we had a wonderful dinner before going back to the dinghy and back out to our boat.  We sat tight for the next day, completing a few more projects, and went back into town the following day.  We’d had the thought that we would rent an electric car (there are tons of them there) but they wanted $140 for half a day!!! so instead we rented tricycles… which was pretty hilarious in and of itself.  I was a disaster on mine for about the first 45 minutes… they don’t steer like a bike, you don’t lean with them… so while Brian was riding along like a pro, and doing tricks like getting it up on only one of the rear wheels, I was concentrating REALLY hard on not falling off!  I did get the hang of it, and we went and ran some errands, including a trip to West Marine for a replacement boat hook - which they were great about… it was one of those “unbreakable” ones, so they gave us a new one on the spot without any question.  We then rode out to the other end of town to the grocery store for some provisions which we loaded into the portabote, and after negotiating with the guys to keep the trikes for another day - since we hadn’t finished all of our errands, and the wind still hadn’t begun its swing South, we returned back to the boat.

The next morning we got up early, finished up a few things and some storage on the boat, and headed back into the marina where we picked up our trikes and went off to finish up our errands.  On our way, we did make a special stop at the Southernmost Point in the US, just to say that we’d been there.  We went back past the marina and over to a BJs like grocery store where we picked up the last of our food provisions, and then to Conch Republic Liquors, where we were able to get some more wine (with the help of a great and knowledgable guy named Hector) to bring with us on our journey.  We loaded all of our stuff into the Portabote, returned our trikes, got one last shower at the marina, and made our way back out to our boat, where we stored the last of our provisions… we’re provisioned really well :), had a delicious steak dinner that Bri cooked on the grill, and then turned in early so that we could get on our way first thing in the morning.  The wind was finally starting to shift South, and we wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss this window to cross over.

We awoke in the morning to a mild breeze from the South YAY!! and since the chop had died down, we were able to easily pull in the mooring ball and cast off.  We made our way up the channel and around the island, and then back down to the sister marina Key West Bight Marina, where we pulled in to fuel up, get our last water, collapse and secure the Portabote and mail a couple of things.  We cast off of the dock a few minutes before noon, and headed out the channel.

We knew early on that this was going to be a good trip… we saw all of our happy omens on our way out of Key West.  The Dorothy Moran was there!  to bring in a ship that was coming down the shipping lane (so we had to stay outside of the channel but there was plenty of clear water so no issue there) then we saw a dolphin, and shortly their after a sea turtle!  Bri and I joked that all of our lucky omens had showed up to see us off.  Sure enough, we truly could not have had an easier crossing the only thing that would have improved it would have been for us to be able to sail without the motor, but given that the wind was light, and not fully southerly (more easterly) we ran the engine for our entire trip across.  That said, all of my dread about crossing the Gulfstream was for naught.  Although we had a little tossing around, this was the calmest passage we have made thus far on the trip, and for a good while, with the Genny out and the engine running we were doing a consistent 8.5kts to our destination!  Bri napped in the afternoon, and then relieved me at about 6PM so that I could do the same.  He woke me up at 1AM to switch and told me that he’d seen lots of cruise ships crossing to Miami, but hadn’t seen anything for quite a while.  I relieved him at the helm, and luckily for us, the autopilot is working beautifully, so I was able to sit upstairs on watch, letting the autopilot drive, and read my book.  I stayed on watch until 7AM (finishing my book) and only saw two boats in that whole time, one cruise ship who was heading to the Bahamas that crossed well off to our starboard, and another sailing vessel who we overtook.  When Bri relieved me at 7, I went below to nap for a little while, and awoke as we were approaching Bimini.

We put up our Q flag (quarentine) and our US flag, and picked our way into the channel and up to the customs and immigration at the government dock.  We tied up, and went through the easiest customs and immigration I have ever been through - no issues with our kitten, no actual boarding - and then cast off and motored down the channel to our anchorage right next to the Bimini Bay Resort (new resort on the island) where we dropped two hooks, suited up in swimsuits, and took our Brownie over to the beach for a walk off test dive with the Brownie.  Fisrt swim of the trip, and it was glorious!  We came back to the boat and grilled up some steaks and asparagus we’d bought in Key West…  then popped open the bottle of champagne that John W had given us in New London that we’d been saving for just this occasion!  We toasted eachother, and our successful arrival in the Bahamas!  Finally we’re in the Caribbean!!!

<p>So we got up the morning of Friday the 30th, and while Brian worked on putting the autopilot back together, I cooked us up some breakfast and connected with Jamie about my credit card - which actually arrived around 11.  We coordinated with Jamie to pull up alongside the Dorothy Moran, where we collapsed our portabote, got rid of a bag of garbage, collected my package, and after a goodbye and thanks, we cast off, heading under the bridge and out to the Hawk Channel where we’d be able to continue our journey down to the Keys with the protection of the reef on one side and the Keys on the other.  So far of all our sails, this was the best, hands down.  It was warm, with calm turquoise seas and about 15-20 knots of consistent breeze off our stern and aft quarter.  We passed out of Miami harbor, passing an International 470 regatta on our way through, and out into the Hawk Channel, all sails flying with one reef in the main and making an easy and comfortable 6.5+ knots.
About two hours into our trip down the Hawk Channel the breeze decided to start to pick up (which we’d been expecting given the weather forecast), so Brian and I put on our harnesses and moved forward to reef in the main.  As we started adjusting the sail from 1 reef to 2, I noticed something… the bolt holding the boom to the mast was working free!! The lock nut had worked it’s way off, and the bolt was slowly working itself out! S***!!!  Fortunately the nut hadn’t fallen overboard, but was sitting on the deck amongst the pile of rope from the staysail halyard.  We quickly doused the main all the way, and while I threw a couple of quick sail ties around it, Brian scooted downstairs - with the nut - to get the tools to lock that bolt back down.  A few minutes later, we breathed a sigh of relief as Brian got the bolt and nut secured… crisis averted, and we took advantage of having the sail all the way down to do an easy 2nd reef into the main.  Even with our reduced sail configuration, and having pulled some of the Genny in we were still cruising along at 6+ knots, up to 7 or 8 when we were able to coast with the waves… and we still had some ground to cover.
One of the challenges with the Hawk Channel is that there are few places where a boat can safely put in at anchor.  Many of the channels to access the keys nearby are too shallow for our 5′1″ draft, so we had picked an anchorage about halfway to our destination (45 SM) to anchor for the night.  We knew that we’d be dropping anchor in the semi dark or dark, even with the great speed we were making, but since both Reed’s and Skipper Bob’s had ID’d Rodriguez Key as a good and relatively sheltered location to anchor, with pretty good holding, we were feeling pretty good about making it to this location…. also the only other close choice was only 3 miles sooner, and would require us to make our way up a winding and narrow channel to make it to the anchorage, not something that we really wanted to attempt in the dark or near dark.
Just as sunlight was beginning to fade we passed our last marker before reaching Rodriguez Key.  All around the marker thousands of flying fish were jumping which was an amazing sight!  Brian went down to study the charts and put in a couple of waypoints to help to guide us to our chosen anchorage.  The winds and chop had picked up substantially, and we were glad to turn into the shelter of the islands.  We were in about 8′ of water, and on Brian’s cue, I dropped the hook, and put out 100′ of chain.  We waited to make sure that the anchor had set, and then fired up some dinner.  Although it was rough out, we had a lovely dinner and then settled in with our books for a bit before turning off the lights to go to sleep… except we didn’t get quite that far. Just as I reached up to switch off the light “HONK HONK HONK!!!” the anchor alarm started going off!  We both BOLTED out of bed and threw on our foulies and boots and raced topsides.   Brian fired up the engine, and I threw on my harness and ran up to the foredeck.  We were still moving, so we made the decision to haul up the anchor, which thank god for adrenaline, was no small feat… but we got the anchor aboard (covered with some nasty kind of seagrass) and Brian sounded our way to a new anchorage.  Again we went through the exercise of setting the anchor, this time putting out our full rode, which is almost 200′.  We waited, making sure that the hook had set, and after a little restless waiting finally drifted off to sleep, feeling pretty good that with that much chain out, and that the anchor had set, that we’d be able to catch some sleep before we set off for Marathon in the morning, where we were planning to spend the night before heading over to Little Palm Island the following day.
4AM  HONK HONK HONK!  We were dragging AGAIN!!  We again threw on our foulies, and raced topsides.  I’ll tell you, there’s nothing quite like that for an adrenaline rush when you’re sound asleep!  We pulled some of the anchor chain in, and tried to get the hook to reset, and once it had hooked (we thought) attached the “pig” (a 30lb dumbell) to the chain and dropped it, plus the 60′ of chain we’d hauled aboard and waited. 5 minutes later, we were dragging again.  At this point it was about 4:30 in the morning, and we looked at eachother, knowing that neither of us would be able to sleep even if we did pull the anchor, re-anchor and get it set, so we said to hell with it, and for the third time that night, I pulled anchor, gathering in the “pig” and setting it aside clipped to the port webbing, and kept hauling up the remaining chain and finally the anchor.  Of course, NONE of the chain wanted to go down the hawse pipe into the anchor locker… so while Brian piloted us out of the harbor at Rodriguez Key, I secured the anchor in the bow, and then proceeded to make a half a dozen trips  up and down between the bow of the boat, and the v-berth, where I’d had to pull the cushions up and open the compartment where the chain is stowed, pulling the chain down from the deck through the hawse pipe until I got to the point that I couldn’t bring any more below, then going topsides to uncastle the chain I’d brought up on deck.  Finally at about 5:15AM we had the anchor and all it’s chain safely put away, and we were back in Hawk Channel and heading South.
After making some coffee, I took Brian’s suggestion to try to catch a little sleep wich I was able to do from about 7-9.  Today’s sail was not nearly as pleasant as the previous day’s had been.  With about 2/3 of the Genny out (only) we were making about 6.5 knots but it was a much choppier ride, and the wind was extremely gusty. We finally got to Marathon, where we’d been plannning to stay for the night, at about 11:30 having covered about another 40 miles, and as we were coming into the harbor, I hailed the bridge, who asked whether we’d made any arrangements with the marina.  No we replied, because supposedly they don’t take reservations.  We hailed the marina on his advice, only to find out that they were full - with a waiting list! No mooring balls, no slips, and even their anchorage was full.  The gal at the marina suggested an anchorage off of Whiskey Creek, but it would be chancy with our draft.  We thanked her, hailed the bridge and let them know that we were turning around, and we continued on south to Bahia Honda Key (pronounced Buy a Honda).  I drove while Brian napped - and I have NEVER in my life seen as many crab and lobster pots as I did during that two hours!  We finally reached Bahia Honda, and turned in the channel into the protected (at least somewhat) area passing through the opening of a defunct railroad bridge and dropped anchor in the cove that is between the railroad bridge and the highway.  Only one other boat there, so we were able to put out plenty of scope in the 8′ deep water.  We waited to make sure that our anchor held, and finally Brian got to catch up on some of the sleep he’d missed the night before.
We were now only about 7 miles from Little Palm, so I called the resort to see if it would be all right for us to arrive earlier in the day than we’d initially thought - not a problem.  We settled in for the night, and though I knew that the anchor was well set, and had been for hours, it was not a very restful night’s sleep for either of us… but we got up in the morning knowing that we were heading to Little Palm Island for a couple of days of extreme relaxation and recuperation.

So to all of you who are following our story, my apologies for the delay in posting our latest updates and whereabouts!  We’ve had very spotty internet at best over the past week or so, and every time I go to make a post, we’ve lost connection.  HOWEVER, tonight we’re in Miami, and internet connection abounds, so I am going to play a little catch up on our doings of the past 10 days.

I believe that where I left off in our travels was our departure from beautiful St. Augustine…. headed to Canaveral.  Our ride to Cape Canaveral was “epic” to quote the Hunter boys.  We had a great run down, although somewhat rough due to the fact that the weather and wind predictions from NOAA and Passageweather.com were slightly off.  We’d been hoping to catch the predicted weather window with some good Northwest winds to carry us down the coast and to Cape Canaveral.  Unfortunately for us, the wind stayed Southwest, changing over to West for much of the trip, causing us to be sailing upwind for much of the way.  The boat was heeled over to Port for much of the 20 hour trip, but on the fortunate side of things, despite having to sail close hauled for much of the way, we were able to hold our course for a good long stretch of the trip, only having to make a tack or two to reach our destination.  Again, I thank my mom for my ability to sleep underway, and my lack of seasickness - which unfortunately our poor kitten experienced a little bout of.  We got to Cape Canaveral without incedent, arriving at about 1:30 and we came through the locks at about 2.  It was one of our more adventurous lockings, as it was pretty difficult with the current to tie up alongside, but we managed it.  Unlike the locks we went through in the Dismal Swamp, the locks at Cape Canaveral were totally self service when it came to the tie up.  The most exciting thing though about coming throug the locks was that we finally saw our first Manatee!!  We crossed out of the locks and went to an anchorage just in the Banana River.  Thankfully there were no launches scheduled, because just as we were about to go to bed our second night sitting there (as we were planning our trip out to Ft. Lauderdale/Port Everglades) we realized that we’d been anchored in a restricted zone designated as a safety zone for launches.  Whoops!!!  We actually sat at anchor in Cape Canaveral for two days/nights - sleeping much of the rest of the day on the day that we arrived, and then waiting out nasty cold wind for the next day and doing a few minor repairs before heading further south.

On the morning of the 20th, we pulled anchor and headed back through the locks (much easier the second time) and headed out of Cape Canaveral with our sights on Port Everglades.  For the first 8 hours of our trip, we had lovely winds - full main up, Genny fully out with the wind off of our aft quarter and we were cruising along at a consistent 6.5+ knots going with the waves - a lovely sail.  At about 5PM, the wind decided it was time to become squirrelly - shifting around 180 degrees back and oscillating between a good 10-15kts and a dismal 5kts or less… time to fire up the engine and motor sail.  OK well you do what you have to do… so we kept plugging away.  I went downstairs to nap while Brian drove awakening me at about 11.  All was well, the engine was running beautifully, and the AutoPilot was doing much of the work, driving us along at a steady pace.  Since I knew that Brian hadn’t had a good nap during his earlier break (due to the wind dying and the necessity of pulling in the Genny and turning on the engine) I bundled up, put on my headlamp, and hunkered down with my book, checking every few minutes visually, and popping downstairs every 30 to run the radar and check the chart to ensure that we were still on course.  We got to our 3PM shift change… and as Brian and Skipper the kitten were both sound asleep downstairs, and I was coming close to the end of my book, I decided to let them both sleep for another hour or so, as everything was running smoothly and we were on course with nary a boat in sight.  At quarter to 4, I went downstairs (having finished my book about 20 minutes previously) and woke Brian up.  While he geared up, I put the kettle on for some tea, and when Brian came topsides with his tea, I went below to catch a few hours of sleep.

At a few minutes to 9, Brian poked his head below to wake me up.  The sun was shining, the water was turquoise blue, there were flying fish jumping around us… and the autopilot had decided to quit about 30 minutes after I went to bed, so poor Brian had been actively steering the boat for the 5 hours or so that I had been sleeping.  I quickly hopped into my foulies (more to ward off any chill than anything else) and popped topsides to relieve Brian so that he could catch a few hours of much needed sleep.  We still had a couple of hours to go before we reached our waypoint for the turn into Port Everglades.  While Brian slept, I steered the boat along our course - Genny out and engine running - taking us at a good clip along to our destination.  I offered Skipper, who had come outside to lounge in the sun in the cockpit and keep me company, the lone flying fish that had made it onto the boat… no interest.  At about noon we finally were approaching our turning point, so I woke Brian up, and we pulled in the Genny and turned into the channel to Port Everglades.  On our way in, we got to witness something I’ve never seen before, a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the channel and doing what looked like an in water rescue (although I don’t know, it could have been a drill).  Regardless, we got to see the helicopter hoist someone in and out of the water while we were on our approach.  They had cleared out by the time we reached the marker, and we cruised into Port Everglades, passing by a HUGE cruise ship that was docked at the entrance, turning through the turning basin, and making our way up the ICW channel to the anchorage at Lake Sylvia, which was quite lovely.  Tired but thrilled to be in the warmth - we dropped anchor for a few hours, and while Brian slept, I reached out to our contact at Moran, Jamie, to let her know that we had arrived, and that we were going to catch a little rest before any next steps.

So after a few hours of much needed rest, we pulled ourselves together and began to formulate a plan for our time in Ft. Lauderdale.  First order of business, order the parts needed to repair the auto pilot and then coordinate with Jamie to pick up the parts that had been shipped to her as well as the rotary saw that she was kindly lending to us so that we could cut the thick plexiglass that we’d purchased to replace the slat that took a swim in Beaufort SC.  Knowing that there were many restrictions on anchoring in Ft. Lauderdale, we decided to avail ourselves of the New River City marina, where the dockage was $1/foot including water, hot showers and access to the city.  We called the marina and secured our slip, then pulled anchor and motored along the New River towing our dinghy behind us, coming through the 3rd Avenue bridge to our slip alongside the Riverwalk… right next to the bridge.  We got the boat well secured, and went to check in with the dockmaster.  Here the confusion begins… we walked along the Riverwalk, finally encountering some folks from Atlas Marina, who told us that no, the slip we were in was theirs, and they weren’t sure that they had room to accomodate us.  HMMM this doesn’t sound right, we’d been given pretty explicit directions from the folks at New River and when we called them to inquire (after encountering the folks at Atlas) they told us that no, we were indeed in the right spot, and that they share this strip of tie ups with Atlas… and that it sounded like Atlas was trying to poach footage yet once again… and gave us directions to where the City Marina offices were, tucked in a little alleyway next to the Downtowner Saloon.  I have to say that among all of the folks that we have encountered at all of the various marinas and facilities that we have stopped at for one reason or another, ALL of the people that we dealt with at Ft. Lauderdale’s three city facilities were among the nicest, most helpful, and most pleasant folks we’ve encountered!  We got ourselves checked in, got directions over to the shower facilities, and checked in with Jamie to arrange to meet up the next morning (Saturday) to collect our parts.  We then hopped in the dinghy and motored our way a little further up the New River, all the while taking in the amazing canal system that Ft. Lauderdale has (no wonder that they call it the Venice of America) and arrived at Cooley’s Landing where we took wonderful HOT HOT showers, swapped out a few books, and then clean and contented motored our way back down the river to our boat.  Right after we arrived back at our boat, a couple stopped by - Peter and Cindy from Traa Dy Liooar, an Island Packet 38 tied up just a short way down from us in the New River facility.  They were on their way over to the Downtowner Saloon to avail themselves of Happy Hour - $1 draft beers, and a $1 appetizer menu that runs until 7PM!  We looked at eachother and quickly made the decision that we’d follow along shortly, as we hadn’t had the chance to do much in the way of provisioning yet, and with the freezer out of comission, we’d eaten all that we’d put in there to keep it from spoiling.  We had a lovely time with Peter and Cindy sitting at the bar overlooking the river at the Downtowner, ordering and eating a few $1sliders and crabcakes and pulled pork burritos along with a couple of $1 Yuengling drafts.  Peter and Cindy invited us to swing by their boat when we were done with our dinner for a little visit, and also to take a look at a windlass footswitch that they had (brand new) that they didn’t need.  We wrapped up our meal, and headed over to Peter and Cindy’s boat for what turned into a fun evening nightcap where the guys bonded about electronics and Cindy and I chatted about girl stuff - including weddings and the like - capped off by Cindy giving me a fabulous haircut!  (she’s a retired stylist).  At about 10 we bid them a fond farewell of fair winds and following seas, as they were planning to depart in the am to catch the weather window that would allow them to cross the gulfstream into the Bahamas.

The following morning, we met up with Jamie who came to meet us at our boat, bearing an armful of boxes and the aforementioned tools.  She was on her way to run some errands, and offered us a lift over to Sailorman - a mecca for sailors where there are aisles upon aisles of new and used marine parts and supplies, at really reasonable prices.  We spent about 4 hours there, exploring the store and finding a bunch of items that were on our list for repairs/projects that we hoped to complete.  We had Oscar in tow, and when we left the store, we ended up catching a cab back to the boat, where we promptly set about tackling our many projects until we were meeting up with Jamie and her husband for dinner.  Jamie and Jack came and picked us up at about 7, and spirited us back to their place (with laundry in tow!) where we had a lovely, relaxing evening and a fabulous dinner of baked ziti, with a fresh salad and crusty bread… just what the doctor ordered, and capped off with brownies it was absolutely delicious.  The company was even better than dinner, and we had just a wonderful evening relaxing and laughing with Jamie and Jack.  On Sunday, we headed out of the marina at about noon, and putted back down the New River to the City Marina at Las Olas, where we availed ourselves of their free pump out facilities, before we headed back over to Lake Sylvia, where we dropped anchor for the night - a welcome and peaceful evening after being right next to an active drawbridge for two nights in a row.  On Monday AM, we got up and pulled our anchor, honoring the town’s 24 hour anchoring rule, and headed back over to New River, where we were able to tie up back at the same spot where we’d been previously.  Still noisy, but convenient to the Publix grocery store, and an easy location for us to get around town.  I was able to get an appointment at the vet for Skipper so that we could get the last of her paperwork in order before we head to the Bahamas, and we rented a car for 24 hours so that we could take care of our provisioning needs, as well as take the cat to the vet.

All went well with our errands, including our stop at the Brownie dealership, where we picked up the last of our dive gear, and the vets where we got Skipper all set for her trip into the islands with us.  We made one last stop at Sailorman to return one item and pick up a couple of additional parts we neede for our repairs, and then returned the car and caught a ride back (yay Enterprise). We made arrangements with Matt - the dockmaster - to move up to Cooley’s Landing the next evening where we’d be able to get another pump out before we headed out of Ft. Lauderdale.  We were anxiously awaiting the parts for the autopilot, which we’d been expecting to arrive on Friday, Monday at the latest.  A call to their facilities to get a tracking number produced the upsetting canned message that they were closed due to severe weather - UGH!  Finally, we were able to track someone down in the Massachusetts offices, who said yes indeed, the package had shipped out as scheduled, and was able to provide us with a tracking number.  A call to FedEx produced the info that the idiot (OK I know that’s not nice but she really was dumb) who helped Brian with ordering the replacement part had shipped the package… via fedEx to Lynne Langlois c/o Jamie Scott Miami FL.  No address, no phone number no company name…. so our package had been sitting in Miami since MONDAY with FedEx unable to sort out where it was supposed to go since the company was closed due to bad weather.  Sigh.  Bless her, Jamie was able to pop over to the FedEx office in Miami on Wednesday afternoon and was able to pick up the part, and she brought that, along with one other package to us at Cooley’s landing on Wednesday evening.  In the interim, our neighbor at Cooley’s Landing was kind enough to lend us his car so that I could go and do some provisioning at the Publix (now no longer a short walk away) now that our freezer was FINALLY really working YAY Brian!!  I headed over to the store, and did an extensive shopping trip, only to find out when I went to check out, that my credit card number was one of the ones that had been compromised in the latest break-in to Citibank’s Heartland facilities. GRRR!  They agreed to send me a new card overnight for delivery on Friday AM to Jamie’s offices, where we could pick the card up on our way out of Miami.  While I was at the store, Brian had been working away on getting the autopilot fixed, only to be stymied by a bolt shearing off when he went to remove it… which meant that in the AM, we would have to make a run to the hardware store to get the right screw extractor.

However, in the midst of this, we received an amazing and exceptionally kind and generous offer from Mr. & Mrs. Barker, a two night stay all inclusive at the beautiful resort of Little Palm in the Keys!  After some discussion about logistics, Brian and I decided to take them up on their kind offer.  A couple of nights in a beautiful location, sleeping in a real bed with fabulous food and an exceptionally attentive staff sounded like an amazing break and a great way to kick ourselves out of the shakedown cruise mode and into the vacation mode that we hope to have for the rest of our adventure.  After some discussion with Mr. Barker, and some logistical planning, we set off from Cooley’s Landing on Thursday at about noon for our anchorage in Miami, where we’d put in for the night, and then meet up with the crew at Moran to collect my new credit card before we set off down the Keys.

For whatever reason, and neither of us is quite sure why we decided to do this, we took the Intracoastal from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami, which proved to be a painfully slow route with many scheduled bridges.  Ultimately the delays caused by waiting on the bridges caused us not to make it all the way to our planned anchorage , but we made it to a nice little anchorage as dark was falling by the 79th street bridge where we dropped our hook, had a nice roast pork dinner cooked in the pressure cooker (YAY) and tucked in for the night.

5:30AM, we’re up and prepping to head off to St. Augustine.  Unfortunately, the wind direction isn’t what was predicted, so we made the decision to do a little more ICW. Oh well, we wanted to put in at St. Augustine both because we’d heard from many people that it was a great town and would be a shame for us to miss it, and also because Jeff had given us the hot tip about Sailor’s Exchange, a marine consignment/used parts shop that was within walking distance from the Municipal Marina.  As usual with the ICW, a pretty darned uneventful trip. We only saw one other boat on our way down, a large trawler that passed us about 5 miles before we got to St. Augustine’s harbor. The harbor entrance was quite confusing with multiple bouys for various channels, but Brian took the helm and piloted us up the harbor, while I went below to hail the Bridge of Lions for an opening.  Given that we were coming in later than we’d hoped, the wind and weather was rough, with strong gusts opposing the current, and given that we needed to do some minor repairs, we opted for putting in at the Municipal Marina for the night and take advantage of their ample facilities.  We halied the marina and were assigned a slip for the night, and once docked and checked in, we set about taking care of the items on our checklist. Based on a recommendation from the gentleman who’d checked us in, we walked up to A1A Brewery for a beer and some dinner.  I have to say that of all the meals we’ve had on this trip, this was one of the top!  We ordered their beer sampler and some coconut shrimp to start, and after selecting a beer from the sampler (which was no easy choice since all of the options were delicious!) we ordered a wonderful dinner, seared tuna for Bri and Pecan Crusted Salmon for me.  Absolutely DELICIOUS!  Anyone following this blog who’s planning to put in at this port, we’d highly recommend A1A! We decided to call it an early night, and walked back to the boat around 7:30, tired and ready for a restful night’s sleep.  On our way back to the boat though, we stopped in at the boater’s lounge and chatted with a few other folks who were staying at the marina or who had bought dinghy passes for the day, and did a quick scoping out of the shower facilities… the nicest we’ve seen since Southport!  The next morning, after a great night’s sleep, we got up and trekked over to Sailor’s Exchange.  WOW what a bonanza of great boat stuff!  We were able to find a large piece of plexiglass - the thick smoked kind that our missing slat had been made of - a practically brand new window to replace our last leaky one (for $10!!!) and an assortment of other items that had been on our list.  I think that had we not had to be back at the boat by 11 (and they not closed at 2 on Saturday) we could have happily spent a whole day there. As it was, we cut it really close on time - and were fortunate enough that a really nice guy who works for NOAA gave us a ride back to the marina, since as it was we were already past our 11 curfew!  I checked in with the marina staff who were very kind and said we had a little more time since the boat taking the slip we were in wasn’t there yet.  We quickly assembled the portabote took our gloriously hot showers, and I threw a quick load of laundry (to run while I showered) into the wash - items like our foulies which were filthy, but we wanted to wash but then hang to dry on a sunny windy day - which Saturday was PERFECT for.  We fired up the engine and went out into the anchorage to find ourselves a nice spot to park the boat for the day.  After dropping anchor, and taking care of a few final bits to our repairs, we hopped in the portabote and putted into St. Augustine for a little wander around.  We walked around King Street, enjoying the shops, buying ourselves a rice krispie caramel chocolate treat, and stopping at a few shops, including a great second hand bookstore, a couple of art shops, and a fantastic spice shop called The Spice & Tea Exchane (on Hypolita - www.spiceandtea.com) where we got some amazing tea, whole nutmegs paprika, and most exciting of all - CATNIP for Skipper!  As it grew dark, we ambled back to A1A where we each enjoyed one more pint of their delicious beer, and another appetizer of the coconut shrimp before we headed back down to the dinghy and out to the boat for dinner - Beef Stroganoff yet another delicious meal prepared in the pressure cooker - I LOVE that thing!  We snuggled up to watch a movie, and then drifted off to sleep.
9:30AM - a little bit of a restless night’s sleep for us both.  The winds were pretty strong, and kicked up quite a bit of chop making the boat dance on it’s anchor all night.  We had a few things to do before we could head over to the fuel dock and get ourselves some ice, showers, fuel and water, most importantly - we needed to reassemble the autopilot which had been being quirky on our trip down to St. Augustine.  Due to our late start, we missed our window to take the dinghy in and get showers.  Fortunately when we pulled up to the fuel dock, the attendant on duty was the same nice guy I’d spoken with the day before, and he gave us new keys to take quick showers - as long as one of us stayed with the boat.  I ran up and took another quick but hot shower while Brian disassembled the portabote, and when I came back and we’d stowed the dinghy he ran up for a quick shower while I went and got ice and settled up our fuel bill.  We hailed over to the bridge requesting a passage through their 2:30 opening, and were given clearance once the Schooner Freedom had come through.  I was sad to leave St. Augustine, and it is a place that I would like to visit again.  Friendly people and a beautiful town, but it was time for us to make our way further south, so we headed out the channel, and set our sails and our course for Cape Canaveral.

We awoke at about 4:30 PM, and hailed over to Martijn who had arrived a couple of hours behind us. We had a nice relaxing evening and set a plan to head over to the free town docks in the morning with the tides.  In the AM, we checked out the half sunken wreck that was nearby, salvaging a small piece of teak grate which we’ve used in the head where the grate was missing, and then all headed over to the town docks.  As we were about to depart, we got a call from John and Pat!  They were also in Jacksonville, at another free dock on the way to the town docks.  We motored the couple of miles up the river, passing John and Pat’s boat, and put in at the town dock at about noon.  I’d called our contact at Moran, who kindly offered to bring our parts to us when we arrived, and lo and behold, he and two colleagues had had a meeting downtown, and had thought to bring the parts with them.  We had a nice lunch with them before collecting our parts and returning to the boat where we met up with John and Pat and had a nice little visit.  Right after we parted ways with them, a gentleman came over to our boat to ask us a few questions…. he was living aboard a sister boat to ours, the Free Spirit, in the marina across the way, and had come over to ask us a few questions about modifications and improvements we’ve made to Three Sheets.  When we started talking to Jeff about our refrigeration issues, and inquired about whether there was and auto parts store that he knew of close byhe offered to take us to the closest store, which was about 5+ miles away, and while we were out also took us for a run over to the super Walmart where I was able to stock up on some groceries and a few other items that had been lingering on our list for the past couple of weeks.  So kind!  When he brought us back to the docks about 2 hours later, laden with our spoils from our excursion, he invited us to come over to the marina later and to avail ourselves of their showers as his guest.  We thanked him for his kindness, and told him that we’d probably see him a little later.  He went to “rescue” his car before the meter maids came for it, and I went about storing our supplies, while Brian tackled the refrigeration issue.  Unfortunatley, the connection on the refrigerant replacement cannister wasn’t the correct size for the unit.  DRAT!  We rallied Martijn, and headed across the river in the Portabote to snag a shower (which was nice and hot although not the nicest facilites we’d been in by far) thanked our host Jeff again for his help, and headed back over the river to the warmth in Martijn’s boat provided by his wood stove.  We’d chatted briefly with two guys who were hired crew on another boat tied up on the free dock while we were taking turns in the shower, and as we were sitting in Martijn’s salon enjoyng a nightcap, they came walking down the dock with a bevvy of baloons that they’d gotten at Hooters for the little boy who was aboard their boat.  I called out a hello to them, and Greg asked if we’d been successful in getting ice.  When I replied no, he suggested that we run back up to Hooters and see if we could get some ice from them as they were closing up for the evening.  I threw on my shoes, and we hustled up the gangplank and into Hooters, where they kindly gave us about 20lbs of ice!  Wahoo!  We put the bags of ice onto our deck, and then went back over to Martijn’s for a little while longer before calling it a night.
The next morning, we decided to take the “big boat” over to the marina across the way so that we could refuel, get some water and perhaps prevail on them to let us use their laundry.  Unfortunately, their laundry system - well really the driers - was really SLOW.  It took us about 4+ hours all in all to do two loads of laundry!!  While I was up doing that, Brian did some tinkering with the engine and some ordering of things on the boat.  By the time I was done, it was almost 2PM.  We crossed back over to the free dock and tied up in front of Martijn, finally getting some access to WiFi, and after a brief discussion, we made the decision to leave in the early AM for St. Augustine, leaving Martijn behind in Jacksonville.  In the meantime, we had another really nice, and too brief, visit with John and Pat, who were out and about in town and swung by to say hello before heading back to their dock, which although a nice location - had the down side of being attached to a park that was locked up at dusk.  I cooked up a nice roast - yay pressure cooker - and we shared a last evening and meal with Martijn for the next while… until we cross paths again.

January 11-15 So we did an epic run from Beaufort SC to Jacksonville FL - an overnight the 12-13th, which all in all was pretty epic in it’s speed and uneventful in and of itself, but leading up to the trip was a bit of a snafu.
When we got up in the morning on the 10th, we pulled our anchor from our lovely anchorage at Lady’s Bridge, and after a very favorable opening, we pulled up to the free town dock for a day in Beaufort.  I have to say that one of the most amazing things has been the number of free docks we have encountered that are provided by the towns to make it more conducive for boaters to stop and enjoy their cities.  Most of these docks do have restrictions on how long you can stay, and most don’t provide water or electricity like at a marina, but for the most part they are centrally located to the town, which is great.  We all scored $1 HOT showers at the adjacent marina and then we set about our tasks for the day.  It was beautifully warm, tanktop and yoga pants for me and t-shirt and shorts for Bri. Brian and Martijn spent some time working on the refrigeration issue, which continues to plague us.  We had it serviced in Charleston, only to have it not stop running… at all. Turns out that the serviceman just kind of hardwired it, which is all well and good in that finally the compressor was running, but of course, draining our batteries, and it’s not good for the compressor to run constantly.  Unfortunately, the system’s still not right, and despite the best efforts of the guys (who at this point I believe can fix just about anything between the two of them) we had to turn the freezer off and we were getting error messages on the display - something about short cycling. We decided to take a walk into Beaufort to see a little of the town, and to grab a quick bite to eat.  On the recommendation of one of the horse drawn carriage drivers, a really nice guy named Don, we walked down the main street and grabbed a terrific burger at a local place called Luther’s.  We walked around the street a little, exploring some of the shops, and then headed back to the boat with the plan of purchasing ice at the marina.  Unfortunately for us, we didn’t realize that the marina closed at 5, and so when we arrived back at 5:15…oops, no luck.  We walked back over to the dock trying to come up with a plan on how we could get some ice to put into the freezer so that we could preserve the food we’d put in there.  As we were about to make the 2 mile rt trek over to the Piggly Wiggly, the closest place we could get ice, we encountered Mike and Sailor (his Jack Russell Terrier) loading up their dinghy… with a 10lb bag of ice.  I said hello, and made a comment about the fact that we were about to hoof it over to the Piggly Wiggly - Oscar in tow - and Mike said “here take my truck”  I nearly fell off the dock.  I mean, we’d spoken with him for all of about two minutes, and here he was, offering to let us use his truck!  He assured us he was happy to lend it to us, told us to drop the keys in his dinhy on the way out to anchor (he was moored in the closest boat, a beautiful Morgan ketch) and sent us on our way!  We decided to divide and conquer, and Brian stayed at the boat to finish up a couple of projects while I ran over to the store.  When I got back, the guys had fixed a couple of other things, and were discussing our plans for the trip to Jacksonville.  Martijn cast off, and went to anchor Rotop, and just as Brian and I fired up the engine to do the same, with a pass by to drop off Mike’s keys, Mike arrived back at the dock for a bio break for Sailor.  We chatted for a few minutes about the plans he and his wife had for cruising in the future, and we said a cheerful goodbye and thanks and went out to anchor.  our plan was to anchor near Rotop, and get up in the AM to catch the tide out at 11  and head off with Martijn to make the run to Jacksonville.  However, unlike our anchorage at Lady’s Bridge the night before, our anchorage in the Beaufort harbor was not peaceful.  We had a terrible night’s sleep if you could even call it that.  We groggily dragged ourselves out of bed at 8 - I think neither of us had slept more than a couple of hours - and stuck our heads out of the companionway hatch.  Foggy, rainy and grim… and then CRAP the center slat for our companionway, the heavy lexan one, went sliding off the side of the boat… and sunk.  Now also during our time ashore at Beaufort, Brian shaved his head (he looks really cute ) so bless his heart, now that he has no hair, he jumped into his swim trunks dropped a line over the side, and took a dive to see if he could find the companionway slat.  Grrr… no luck, 18′+ below us there was no way.  At about this point, Martijn paddled over to us to see what we were doing, and we told him about our predicament.  “No worries,” he said. “There’s a construction site just next to the marina, and when I was walking around yesterday I saw a dumpster with some scraps in it, let me paddle in and see if I can find something you can use to replace it until you can get a real slat or piece of wood to make a permanent solution!”  So off he went, and Bri got into real clothes and we went to pull anchor and motor in to meet Martijn… except that we forgot that there was a line over the side - which promptly wrapped itself around the propeller just as we started to motor in. I quickly dropped the anchor again - very nervous because we were close to other boats and in a mooring field - and Brian went below into the aft cabin to see if he could spin the line off of the prop by turning the shaft… enough to loosen it, but not enough to get it all the way unwound.  Poor Bri, suited up this time in his wetsuit, and went for his second swim of the day.  Just as he was about to get in the water Martijn came back to the boat, wondering what had happened to us, since he’d been waiting at the dock with a piece of scrap plywood that was big enough for the slat.  Brian went down, and with a few twists, was able to unwrap the line from the propeller.  Unfortunately, the line wasn’t so happy, but at least it was cleared of the prop.  Martijn went back to his boat while Bri dried off and we went for anchor pulling #2 of the day and headed into the dock to make our new slat.  Martijn paddled back in and we all decided that perhaps it would be a smarter plan for us to motor the 10+ miles we needed to go to get to the mouth of the Port Royal Sound and anchor there at in Cowen’s Creek and all try to get a good night’s sleep before taking the offshore route… so at 1PM we fired up the engine, Martijn pulled his anchor, and we headed over to Cowen’s Creek.  When we arrived, another boat that had been with us both in Charleston and in Beaufort, Tarsie, was already at anchor and we both joined them in the peaceful cove.  We had a nap - to make up for our terrible night’s sleep - and then Martijn joined us for dinner and we mapped out our plan for the morning… a 9:30 AM departure to maximize the tides on both ends and we turned in for the night.
In the morning, we finished up our preparations, turned the Port berth into a pilot berth and just as we were about to pull anchor Tarsie came alongside to ask what our destination was, and whether we’d be interested in doing 3 hour radio checks with them on our way down to Jacksonville.  We said sure, and they headed out with Rotop behind them, and we hauled anchor and followed close behind.  We pulled out the genny, and shortly thereafter raised the main, with two reefs in it.  Great wind, warm, the waves were a bit to our side but mostly behind us, and we were off, sailing and making good speed, a pretty consistent 7.5kts with up to 8 and change at times with the wind and waves.  We sailed along doing our noon check in with Tarsie and Rotop.  At about 2 I went below to try to  get a little nap in, without much luck.  When  did the next radio check with Tarsie, they let us know that they had lost their starter battery, were dangerously low in  battery power overall, and asked if they could follow us down to Jacksonville.  We slowed our speed a little while they caught up with us, and continued on our way south.  We took shifts trying to nap, although I was the more fortunate of the two in that regard, I caught a couple of hours of sleep when Brian relieved me at 10PM, and when we switched at 2 he went below for some sleep.  Unfortunately, about an hour and change into my shift, we had a sudden wind shift that caused us to gybe unexpetcedly, and in the process of trying to correct our course and deal with the now backwinded Genny, I managed to get the Genny well fouled.  I had to call down to Brian (who had been awakened by Tarsie) to ask him to come up and steer while I tried to get the sail unfouled.  About an hour and a half later, with a variety of scenarios past, including both Brian and I up on the foredeck while the Autopilot steered and we tried to unfoul the sail, we had it furled most of the way in (although not prettily) and Bri went back below to try to sleep.  10 minutes after he went below, the Genny decided to pretty much unwrap, and in the process pretty much unfouled itself, however, we still had a line wrapped around at the bottom of the furler, so I had to call poor Bri back topsides while I went forward once again to get the sail unfouled.  After about 15 minutes, we had the sail cleared, the lines re-run  and all that remained to do was to make some adjustments to the furler once we had daylight.  As we came into Jacksonville we encountered a lot of big ship traffic, and one crazy ship that was lit up so much that we both thought it might be land! As dawn broke, we entered into the channel in Jacksonville, having bid farewell to the folks on Tarsie, who had decided to slow down and await daylight before calling Tow Boat US to bring them into the harbor.  We motored along the St. John’s river, passing Moran and actually getting to see a couple of Moran tugs in action as they brought the Liberty Ace (a HUGE container ship) in to dock.  We proceeded up to Trout River, where we’d agreed to meet up with Martijn, and dropped anchor, sent a spot called my parents who’d just returned from England to let them know we were OK, and then pulled all the shades and crawled into bed for a much needed sleep.
We awoke at about 4:30, and hailed over to Martijn who had arrived a couple of hours behind us. We had a nice relaxing evening and set a plan to head over to the free town docks in the morning with the tides.

January 10

Yesterday morning we woke up around 8 to discover that the winds had died down dramatically, and that we were alone at our anchorage.  We quickly pulled ourselves together, and pulled anchor seeing as we wanted to make sure that we made it all the way to Beaufort for today, rather than having to put in at another anchorage along the way because of not having made enough miles.   Truly the trip between our anchorage Church Creek and our arrival in Beaufort was completely uneventful.  We did see some huge dolphins along the way, and actually had one that was jumping coming toward the boat (usually they are jumping in parallel with the boat so you don’t really get to see their faces or undersides - but this one we did).  As we were about 5 miles off from Beaufort, we spotted Rotop’s OPEN flag flying ahead of us, and we closed the gap just as we pulled into the anchorage we’d decided upon with Martijn the day before, the Lady’s Island Bridge anchorage.   We pulled alongside Martijn, who had already dropped anchor, and chatted for a minute as he pulled himself together to go ashore, as he was hoping to make it to Best Buy before they closed to pick up a new computer. We dropped anchor a little ways away, and got ourselves situated for the evening.

At about 7:00 Martijn returned… SUCCESS!  He’d been able to get the laptop he needed so that now he could load all of his navigation information onto it.  While I put together a quick dinner, the guys worked on getting Martijn’s computer up and running.  We all enjoyed a nice quiet evening at this beautiful (and calm) anchorage before turning in for the night.

This morning we got up and crossed through the Lady’s Island Bridge, and glided over to Beaufort’s free town dock where we tied up, got really nice HOT showers, and have been enjoying the beautiful day.  We’ve also finally named the kitten - Skipper.  She’s adapted beautifully to boat living, enjoys playing with her mouse that Martijn made for her, and has even gotten brave enough to come and explore the cockpit, although she really isn’t all that interested in going beyond the confines of the cockpit seats (thank god).

We’re off to explore Beaufort a little, and see some of the beautiful and historic sites to be taken in here before we go back out to anchorage this afternoon.  More later after some exploring!

January 8

I can’t even begin to tell you all how wonderful our little kitten is.  She’s so GOOD!  Using her litter box - no issues -we put it in the head in the shower stall where it’s out of the way, but as it has a handle, easily removed for when we want to take a shower.  She seems to have settled right into boat living.  She’s very curious, has checked out every nook and cranny on the boat she can get to but she is also super affectionate!  She slept on our bed with us last night, purring away, and is right now sitting in my lap as I type… she hopped up on the settee, and then scooted around the side of the chair before climbing into my lap and curling up, purring away.
As planned this AM, we regrouped at 8:15 and, based on the weather reports, made the decision that the ICW was our best route.  At the moment, we’re sitting waiting for the first bridge to open.  We made it here a couple of minutes late, and the operator graciously told us that she’d open for us before the 9:30 opening if traffic permitted.  Sure enough we saw the gates go down, and the bells started, but a moment later, she hailed us back on the radio to let us know that she couldn’t get the bridge to unlock so was calling an electrician.  We are tied up at the adjacent pier waiting for word on when she can open, but it’s been almost an hour… bah.  We’re rafted up next to Martijn, and just waiting it out… so goes the ICW. :)  I can’t complain, my new little friend is sitting cuddled up with me as I write this. It’s quite amusing though, she really has settled in extremely well and has tolerated the movement of the boat without complaint.  Her reaction though to us turning on the engine was pretty funny, I think that it startled her, but she settled right back down once she saw that we weren’t ruffled by all that noise.  We’re still brainstorming on a good name for her… I’m sure that the right one will come to us, it just hasn’t yet.
11:37 - a two plus hour wait, and we are finally making it through the bridge!  Well, as Martijn says, at least we’re moving again, so perhaps we won’t make it as far today as we’d hoped, but at least we’re moving and it’s progress south!
4PM - Enough of the ICW already!  We’ve not made much progress today, between the two hour delay at the bridge and the headwind that’s been slowing us all day.  We’ve just dropped anchor “next to” Martijn in Church Creek, where we’re going to sit out the night and hope that the wind either dies down or changes direction so that we can make more headway tomorrow.  We’re en route to Beaufort (SC) and we were so hoping to be able to go outside for this part of the trip, but unfortunately the wind gods were against us and so we’re at least making some more progress south!  Hmmm time to start thinking about what I should cook for dinner tonight…

January 2-7

So it’s not that Charleston hasn’t warranted us updating every day, but since we’ve been in one location for almost a week it seemed like I should just encapsulate all that happened here in one post.  First and foremost, we’ve made a fantastic new friend, Martijn from sj Rotop who hails from Holland.  He’s been cruising the Atlantic coast for the past four years after crossing to the US, and he’s done most of it singlehanded!
On the 2nd, knowing that we were going to have to wait for the service technician for the freezer, we decided that we would go back out to our anchorage, so we pulled ourselves together and went back out to the anchorage and dropped two anchors.  The next morning, Brian and I headed in to the docks in our happily running dinghy.  We wandered around Charleston, stopped at a few shops, including a stock up at Harris Teeter and a stop at a local hardware store where we acquired a great little collapsable handcart, which I promptly dubbed Oscar, and headed back to the boat for the evening.  It was a little foggy getting back to the boat, and about half way back, the outboard decided to act up again, so with Brian directing us, I rowed us the last few feet to the boat, and we resignedly decided we’d have to deal with this problem once and for all.   The next morning Brian was outside in the cockpit working on the freezer in one last attempt to get it running before the service guy came out, when we heard a friendly hello from the side of the boat, and looked over to see Martijn sitting in his kayak having come over to introduce himself.  We chatted for a little bit, and invited him aboard.  He was about to go back into town to see if he could get his Skype phone working, and Brian being the technical wiz that he is, offered to take a look and see if he could sort out the problem.  Martijn scooted back over to his boat to grab the connector cable, and the guys set to work figuring out what was wrong with the phone, finally doing a full re-install to correct the issue.  We invited Martijn to join us for dinner, and in the interim, he offered to take a look at our outboard, which was still being quite difficult.  After a lot of cleaning, the guys settled on soaking the carbeurator in white vinegar overnight to try to remove the last of the built up crud.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner together and enjoyed hearing some stories about Martijn’s travels.  In the morning, Martijn came back over to work with Brian on the outboard and brought me a couple of books we’d discussed the night before, including Tania Aebi’s amazing book Maiden Voyage - which I immediately dove into… and god was it a beautiful day!  75 degrees and sunny.   Finally the guys put the engine onto the portabote to give it a little test run - moderate success, it ran, kind of… so the boys took it back onto the boat and did a few more adjustments.  AHA success!  The outboard purred to life, and the guys did a little toot around our boats with it running perfectly! YIPPEE!!  After a bit Martijn headed back over to his boat and on into town so that he could run a few errands and make a few calls.
The next day we got up early and pulled anchor to head back over to the marina and meet up with the freezer technician, and we set up with the marina to use the facilities for a few hours as we knew that we didn’t really need to stay there overnight.  The technician arrived promptly at 8:30, and while I took a shower and did a little more laundry, the the technician sorted out our freezer problems… well at least for the most part.  It’s freezing just fine, but we’re not sure if the control is malfunctioning, because it’s still running… could be because we’ve loaded it up with some supplies to last us for the next while, and many of the steaks and other items weren’t frozen before we put them into the unit (although I did buy as much pre-frozen as I could).  Once the fridge was fixed, we zipped over to Martijn’s boat Rotop, to let him know our plans for the day and see if there was anything that he needed while we were out and about doing provisioning.  His boat is wonderful!  He has built a custom pilot house on her which affords him a warm and dry place to sit when the weather turns nasty or cold.  His boat is beautiful on the inside as well, he’s made wonderful use of the salon space, including the installation of a wood stove, and a rewired lamp that was once kerosene as his salon table light.  The whole boat is a At about 4:30, and with some serious effort, we finally were able to pull off the dock (I was very impressed with Brian’s ability to get us out of there, as he had to back us off the dock to use the current to our advantage) and we motored out to our anchorage spot and dropped our anchor.  Not long after, we joined up with Martijn again for a visit and some dinner, and to strategize about our departure for the next day, when the weather reports were showing favorable winds for us to be able to make the two day jaunt to Jacksonville on the coastal route and finally get some more real sailing in! Our plans set, we all retired for the evening early, knowing that the next two days would be long ones, as we’d be doing two overnights to reach our destination.
Tuesday night, the wind changed, and it was really blustery.  Even at anchor we were getting tossed around.  When we got up in the morning, it was still blowing fiercely.  Just after we got up, we got a very exciting phone call.  We had been debating before we left, bringing our cat Sascha with us on this trip, or getting a kitten for companionship, but Sascha hates to travel, and is older and we decided that wasn’t fair, and for those of you who were with us during the final days of preparation, you all know that we were in a mad scramble to get ourselves underway, and not in a good situation to be getting a kitten while we ourselves were aclaimating to this lifestyle. Brian had done a little looking around while we were in Charleston and had found a family that needed to find a new home for their kitten due to a relocation to a place that didn’t allow cats.  She met every one of our criteria (and the governmental criteria for her to be able to travel with us to our Caribbean destinations), 6 months old, all of her shots, had been spayed, and as an added bonus for us, she’d also been declawed, and she’s black!! They called us back to tell us that they would be thrilled for us to have her, and knowing what our situation was - being on a boat - offered to bring her to us, along with some additional food, litter, her carrier, litter box and as an added bonus some paper towels (which I’d told her that we were in need of when she called us to let us know she was stopping at Walmart on the way to pick those items up)!  At about 3 PM, an hour before we were planning to depart, we dinghied in and met up with Kristy and her husband to pick up our kitten, currently named Mogley (I think we’re going to come up with a new name for her that’s more sailing related.  Delighted, we dinghied back out to the boat (a slightly wet ride) and we introduced our kitten to her new home.  She is a total love-bug!  Very curious, and very affectionate.  Martijn came right over to meet her, and while he was there, we all discussed our next steps, as the promised weather had not turned to a West/Northwest wind as promised, but was more Southwest, which was going to put the wind right on our nose for the bulk of our trip.  Also, the wind levels had not improved, we were getting strong gusts, up to about 30+kts, so strong in fact that a couple of the other boats who had been anchored near us began to drag!  We stood by, Martijn was at the ready to jump into his kayak and lend a hand if needed as we’d already put our portabote away and wouldn’t be able to assemble it fast enough to be of assistance to anyone. We decided that our best and safest course of action was for us to sit it out tonight at anchor, and then to decide our course in the morning.  If wind permits, outside and if not, better to make some progress down the ICW.  We asked Martijn to join us again for dinner, and he went back to his boat to get a couple of CD’s, reappearing about 45 minutes later with the CDs and a little toy mouse he’d fashioned for the kitten!  It took her a little bit to come out of her shell and start playing with it, but man is she a ham!  She’d bat at the  mouse, and then look around to see if anyone was watching - very coy.
We enjoyed a nice dinner (thanks to the pressure cooker!) and decided to all turn in early and to regroup at 8:15 AM, as that would put us in the perfect position to come through the first ICW bridge at 9AM if we went that route, and wouldn’t really hold us back much in our offshore departure if that was the route we decided to take.