Casting the lines off, we departed our dock and headed for the entrance to Horn Harbor. Following the bread crumb trail on the GPS was easy enough but the gremlins that have plagued me on this trip were still present. I bumped on the way out and it felt like we were stuck. Depth sounder at 4.9′, not good. I gave it some throttle and the depth sounder showed deeper water but I wasn’t moving! Now what??? A little more throttle and still no movement. Hmmmm … wait! Let’s try putting it back in gear! Dumb ass moment number whatever, who keeps track anymore. Off we went.

The trip up to Solomons was a motor ride, dead calm. After a quick stop at Spring Cove Marina for a pump out, water and fuel, we were anchored in our usual spot way back in Mill Creek. We will stop and see cousin Cheryl and then begin our search for a slip and car for the summer. That episode will be chronicled in a later post.

Sweet Lady (Max and Ellie’s Oday 40) didn’t make the trip, but two days later Cathy and Tom on Perseverance 2 joined us at the anchorage. We all had a chance to tour Solomons on foot and then cap it off with a steamed shrimp dinner on the boat. Life is good!

Solomons is a destination for many cruisers and we began to recognize folks and their boats right away. At West Marine, Mike from Marathon (drove the Smorgasboat) was behind the counter and he told me that Billy on Kittiwake was here also. Billy is also a fellow Marathoner and coconspirator in senior softball injuries. We have seen Moonlight Serenade (from Georgetown) at the marina but no sign of Bill and Sarah yet.

Bill and Patty Coxe were also here for a short time. They are heading for the 2009 Oday rOnDAYvous in New York.

We have found a marina off the Potomac but near Leonardtown, Maryland. It’s about 15 miles to Cheryl’s by car (6 hours by boat). Now that we have a car I guess it’s time to get down to boat projects.

Most of the trip from Old Point Comfort up to the Great Wicomico was dead calm and we motored all the way. Very few crab pots and very few boats left us with a very uneventful day.

Our plans were to visit with Tom and Cathy from Perseverance 2, Oday 39, whom we had last seen in the Bahamas and Max and Ellie from Sweet Lady, Oday 40 that lived several houses away. We picked Tom up at the marina at Reedsville and he took us through the entrance to Horn Harbor where we would borrow a dock from a neighbor right next door to Sweet Lady. The harbor entrance is guarded by two shoals that appear to touch but just allow us to pass with 6″ of water to spare. Let’s see if I can get out on my own, especially with my track record.

After a great visit and several days of relaxation we decided to leave on Wednesday with all three boats heading to Solomons, but plans have changed. Ellie cut her foot pretty bad on some barnacles (retrieving the new furler that went overboard during installation) so Perseverance and Sweet Lady will catch up in a couple of days and we will leave in the morning.

One last hurdle and we should be home free! Leaving the marina was a snap and soon we were on our way. I had checked the hand drawn chart at the cruiser’s lounge and was prepared to exit the Alligator River and cross the Albemarle Sound. I made the turn from mid channel and damned if I wasn’t aground once more. OK, I’ll search around a bit, there’s gotta be some deep water. Nope, aground again, and again and again! Let’s regroup and try again. A quick call for local knowledge and the reply comes back that the sand bar has shifted. Head for the shoal marked on the chart and you should be fine. RIGHT! Sure enough we saw nothing less than 12′ where it was supposed to be less than 5′. Oh well, that’s what the ditch is all about. One adventure after another.

The Albemarle soon turned really ugly. The wind started to pick up and soon the 3′ to 4′ very choppy waves were rolling us from the aft quarter. Very uncomfortable. We hurried as best we could considering we’re in a sailboat and soon enough we were inside the protection of land heading for Coinjock. This would be the days destination for most cruisers but not us. We were headed for Great Bridge, another four or so hours further. As we hit the Currituck Sound we had some wind so out came the headsail and then there was nothing, dead calm. Oh well, roll it back up and on we go. As we headed for the shelter of land again, the water started to change appearance. Oh good, some wind, we can sail again. Wrong! The wind came at a steady 20 knots with some significant gusts. Almost on the nose so no sails and no progress. We slogged on and after an agonizing period we were back in shelter of land masses. We were all alone for this last stretch and it can be quite nice aside from the bridge schedules and an occasional barge. We’ve seen lots of Ospreys and their babies along the way and soon we started to spot Bald Eagles.

It was getting late so we checked out the free dock in Great Bridge but all spaces were taken. Bummer, we slipped into Atlantic Yacht Basin and order a delivery pizza that arrived just as the rained poured down.

Around ten the next morning we headed off to Portsmouth and docked at the northern free town dock. It was still lousy weather but at least we could go do some sight seeing.

We took in the Portsmouth Maritime Museum and then took the water taxi over to Norfolk for the USS Wisconsin and the Norfolk Maritime Museum.

Check out the big guns on that gal! (The Wisconsin that is!)

These are the 15″ shells for those big guns.

It was a slow tour day since the weather was bad so we hooked up with our own personal tour guide. He was an ex submariner and once he found out I was a submarine fan we got the royal treatment. It was quite fun.

I always enjoy the museum and this time was no different. I have become quite interested in the naval history that we encounter all along the coast, especially the Civil War stuff. The battle of the USS Monitor and CSS Merrimack (Virginia) was held right here at Hampton Roads. It’s amazing how these little ships revolutionized naval warfare so long ago.

We managed to get back almost to the dock before the skies opened up. We borrowed some trash bags to wear but got pretty well soaked anyway. Soon after arriving at the boat the docks were under water.

The next day we moved twelve miles up river to Old Point Comfort to anchor and set the stage for our trip up the Chesapeake.

Today was planned out to the minute detail. Timed bridge openings and tidal ranges choreographed for easy passage. It looked so simple. I ran aground in the first fifteen minutes. Motts Channel leading out of Wrightsville Beach is always shoaled and I forgot which side was shallow. My bad! I was off in time to make the first bridge opening.

Sometimes I worry too much. We saw only occasional shallow spots, hit all the bridges on time and had a pretty much uneventful day. We thought we might get stopped at Camp LeJuene by Marine maneuvers but it didn’t materialize. As we were motoring along we noticed swimmers crossing the ICW. They were Marines in training with full packs and weapons. Then we noticed more in the bushes and at the waters edge. Their weapons were drawn and one was aimed at us. We surrendered peacefully and continued on our way.

We stayed the night at Dudley’s Marina in Swansboro. Not fancy but pretty nice for $30! They even drove us to town. What a deal and real nice folks too.

The next morning dawned and we were off. We passed Beaufort by noon and soon we were heading out into the Nuese River and Pamlico Sound. We anchored in Campbell Creek just before joining the Pungo River the next day.

The highlight of this day was the Pungo River / Alligator River Canal. This canal is about 27 miles long and is straight as an arrow for the first 17 miles. This shot is from just before the turn looking back.

This stretch is notorious for its floating debris and “dead heads” or large logs floating just below the surface with maybe an end sticking up. We passed several of these dead center in the channel. These deadheads are gathered up occasionally. Here’s a pile collected awhile back.

Tomorrow, if the weather lets up, we’ll be off to Portsmouth or Great Bridge. Otherwise we may stay put for a couple of days.

This trip north inside has been one ritual of playing the tides. Where to, tomorrow? Depends on the tide at such and such trouble spot. Charleston to Butler Island (north of Georgetown, SC) takes you through the shallow stretch near McClennanville. Still shallow but we hit the tides right and it wasn’t too bad.

The Waccamaw River is always pleasant and deep enough to eliminate most stress. This day takes us into Barefoot Landing. Thunderstorms follow us for the last hour and we manage to only get damp.

The following day is going to be stressful so we throw the dice, check the tides and we’re out by 0800. This puts us at dead low going through a stretch called the “rockpile”. Pretty scary seeing all those jagged limestone rocks sticking out of the bottom. Very narrow here and you don’t want to meet an oncoming barge. We didn’t, whew! The first inlet is Shalotte. Supposedly it has been dredged recently and the depths were better than we have ever seen but we do see some spots that had it been low tide we would have hit. Next up was Lockwood’s Folly and it to was dredged recently. The flood current was ripping and pushed us out of the channel momentarily. It was 5 1/2′ deep at high tide! The range is about 4′! After these two spots the rest was easy. We had hoped to stop at Southport at the Provision Co. Restaurant. We got there as a small boat was leaving and so we got a spot for the night for free. The seafood is great there and we had two meals. Guess the dock wasn’t quite so free. I had stopped there last year and I didn’t remember it being shallow but at low tide we were on the bottom, or I should say, IN THE BOTTOM. The sounder was reading 3.9 feet. About a foot and a half was in the soft mud.

We were able to back out through the goo the next morning and we were off for a short trip to Wrightsville Beach. Snow’s Cut and Carolina Beach Inlet were both pretty tricky and shallow but we made it through. The weekend traffic has been horrendous and so we’re happy to be on the hook for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow takes us through another set of shallow spots as well as coordinated bridge openings. I’ve got it all worked. We’ll see …

After six days in Daytona enduring almost 25″ of rain we finally got back in the groove and headed out. The boat interior is getting pretty damp as there are now so many fixed port leaks that we have lost count. In the driving rain they leak, the hatches leak and the humidity clings to everything. We awoke one day to one of our inflatable life jackets inflated under the dodger. After thoroughly drying it and rearming it would go off again a day or two later just from humidity. Aside from all this we always enjoy our visits here visiting friends and our usually shopping and eating spots. This stop was no exception.

The trip to St. Augustine was pretty routine. No real shallow spots to stress over and short enough for a leisurely motor down the waterway. We even got to motor sail almost the whole way.

St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach is another story. Leaving St. Augustine with the tide would mean that we would be near Fernandina at low and low at a new moon is LOW, .8′ below mean low water. There had been reports of shallow water approaching Fernandina Beach and I wasn’t looking forward to it. Getting across the St. John’s River was fun at an ebb current of almost four knots and as we approached Fernandina the water started getting thin. Trouble spot #1 was very apparent as the sand bar was sticking out of the water by about a foot. #2 was quite as visible and we thought we doing the right thing but rain up on a bar and were stuck in 4′ 6″ of water. After backing off of that one we rounded he corner and promptly ran aground again. All in spots where charts showed much deeper water. We anchored with no trouble and rest for our offshore trip to Charleston.

If my adventure aground was any indication of the future I sure wasn’t going to go through Georgia and southern South Carolina in the ICW. We headed offshore just before slack water hoping to hit Charleston at slack 26 hours later. We were a little early so we got some boost from the flood tide going in. The ride over was pretty routine. Little wind but enough for a motorsail. The swells were on the beam at 2 to 4 feet with some odd ones much bigger. This caused a very uncomfortable ride and by the time we got to Charleston we were nauseous.

As always when Mary takes the helm she meets ships and this trip was no exception. We expect to seem them anchored waiting to go into Savannah and usually cross a few in the night but last night was strange. Mary woke me at about 0100 to see if I could figure what was out there. At night with no light other than the stars scale is hard to determine. She figured she was seeing two ships far off but one had a red nav light showing. Radar showed a huge amount of return or clutter. Hmmm … I slowed and tried to figure what it was. Well it was one large dark ship with very few lights on and it was almost motionless. As we crept closer but starting to turn away it began to pick up speed, making no sound and slowing veered off and left us behind. We figure it thought we didn’t see him and stopped to avoid a collision. If that was his intent, THANK YOU! Ships are the scariest things out there at night.

We’re in Charleston now and had planned to go to Beaufort, North Carolina offshore in a couple of days. That isn’t looking as promising now so we may do the rest of our trip in the ICW.

More to come.

It’s been a long time! Actually the last time we had American pizza it was in Daytona, December 2008. Try as hard as we could, we never managed to get pizza in Marathon before heading out to the Bahamas.

Pizza in the Bahamas is not quite the same. I tried in Bimini. End of the World Bar came close but not quite. St. Francis Resort in Georgetown was ok but not even close. Even closer was Island Breeze Resort in Long island, but they all lacked the crust we love. You can’t make a crust with Bisquick!

Well tonight I had my pizza fix at Stavro’s Pizza House on South Beach Street in Daytona Beach. While not up to Wells Brothers in Racine or Lombardi’s in New York, it was good and it hit the spot.

Ahhhhhhh….

I HAD to make a comment about the lack of rain we’ve seen. I can’t recall the last time we had been in a thunderstorm. Well it took less than 12 hours before the black clouds rolled in.

In no time it was raining and we were reintroduced to the random leaks every cruiser suffers.

Vero Beach only held us for four nights this time. We escaped on Saturday morning and made the long haul up to Titusville. Seventy four miles in a day in a sailboat is not to shabby. We averaged 6 1/2 knots with a hefty tailwind running the headsail and motor at 50%.

The manatees were out in force the next day as we slowly made our way through Haulover Canal. This is one of our favorite spots along the ICW. There are lots of birds (pelicans, herons, roseate spoonbills and an occasional scarlet ibis) as well as the ever present manatees. Very cool place.

The lighthouse at Ponce Inlet south of Daytona.

As we closed in on Daytona we joined in the rush hour of Sunday afternoon boating in Florida. It seemed everyone was out and they all owned power boats! I’m not sure but I think it’s a requirement in Florida that only testosterone laden males with tattoos can drive boats over 300 HP and they must have at least one skinny bikini clad woman hanging off them. Two are required if over 500 HP. I have also learned that any power boat capable of making a wake over 36″ must do so in the proximity of a sailboat!

The winds turn ugly tomorrow and will pin us here till midweek. More later, I need to go socialize with all my new power boat neighbors.

What a wonderful surprise! A shuttle launch was planned for 1401 that afternoon and our anticipated arrival at the Ft. Pierce inlet was to be 1400! We slowed and circled and were not disappointed. What a sight to see the rocket streaking skyward. It brought tears to our eyes.

The inlet on the other hand almost hair raising. It was full ebb with a strong east wind blowing which created quite a rage. Our speed slowed to under 2 knots as we bucked through the heavy waves but we made it through and into Harbourtown Marina. We don’t normally stay at too many marinas but we needed to check back into the US. Check in went very quickly and we were soon seated for our first US meal, STEAK!!! Expectations exceeded reality.

The next morning we moved on to Vero Beach and picked up a mooring. Here we’ll sit while four months of mail is forwarded to us from our mail service. We’ll pick up some supplies and move on as soon as the mail comes.

I have tried to catch up on adding our photos to the gallery. Currently I am through the first stop in Georgetown. Join Facebook and add us as friends and you can keep up a little faster since posting there is faster and easier than on this blog.

A nice motor sail across to the Berry Islands brought us to Frozen and Alders Cays. The Berry Islands are rather small and remote and many are privately owned. Can you image owning an island in the Bahamas? I know I could if it wasn’t for the problem of no money! These two cays recently were purchased with all amenities for $8.3 million. Cheap considering the price of building the houses and infrastructure to support them.

When we anchored it was very calm and peaceful but at high tide the surge (a kind of swell that is counter to the wind direction) became very uncomfortable. Of course this occured in the middle of the night.

The next day we moved over to Slaughter Harbor at the northern tip of the Berry’s. This is a cruise ship stop and we motored our way through the jet skis to our anchorage.

Dawn came soon enough and we were on our way again this time crossing New Providence Channel for Lucaya. Plenty of ship traffic here but its best feature is the great fishing. Birds first gave us a clue to the feeding tuna. The fish swirled and broke the surface in great numbers. We would make a pass as well as a sailboat can while in route to a destination and soon I hooked up my first yellowfin tuna. It was not large but it fought like crazy. Tuna sound when hooked unlike mahi which jump and stay near the surface. It took quite some effort to winch him up but soon enough he was in gaff range. Tuna bleed a lot!!! What a mess. The swim platform was totally covered in blood. As we drew closer to Lucaya we caught an additional mahi to add to our larder.

We took a slip at Lucaya at a very nice marina. Lucaya is very nice but unlike the Bahamas that we have learned to love. It is very developed and touristy. We had a shore dinner with some new friends, George and Karen on Sunseeker. We would sail with them on the way back to the States.

A short sail took us to West End to position for the trip across the Gulf Stream. The anchorage was very shallow, we ran aground on rock several times, and the current was swift. Regardless, we slept well until 0200 when it was time to go. The trip across was uneventful and 13 hours later we were in Ft. Pierce and checking back into the good ol’ USA!

The sun sets across the stream, good bye Bahamas, we’ll miss you!