It was time to "Get Wet"

But before that happened there was the golf cart parade. Down here at Guana Cay there is one basic road that passes Grabber's, The Pirate's Den, Orchid Bay Marina (where we are) and then winds up at Nipper's. At every stop they have food of various kinds out for free. I have to admit Nipper's put out quite of spread of meats and rolls for folks to 'Nosh' on when they bought up drinks.

All of the carts meet up at Grabber's for the start and as a result prior to the parade while we were in town we were almost run over by several of the drinking cart drivers. I'm thinking that drinking and doing anything is normal around here especially given the T-shirt I've seen. It has a motto on it "the liver is evil and must be punished". The parade of carts is led by the rescue vehicle which is a pick up with a siren and maybe some tools of the rescue sort. The parade started at sunset and was composed of dozens of carts decorated with lights and etc.. There was some associated noise and cheering as the parade wound its way along the shore of Orchid Bay. It was fun to watch from our vantage point on the aft deck of Freedom.

The next day we rode out on the Guana Dive boat with some folks we met and went snorkeling while they dove. Since it has been years I was diving I opted to snorkel even though the dives were non-technical and shallow.

We saw many different sorts of fish and the colors were vivid in many places. Quite a good ride although the water was rough on the reef at the first site we visited. Several folks were sucking water into their snorkels as a result. Not fun in 30 feet of water. While we did not see the shark the divers saw, we did see all of the Barracuda and other fish they did including some large Nassau Grouper (tasty) which are currently out of season. Regardless we were at the Park just South East of Guana Cay and retrieving anything is strictly forbidden.

At one point while snorkeling near the boat at the first (rough water) site, two schools of grey snapper and yellow tails were swarming all around me. What I did not know was that (sadly) a few folks were sea sick on the boat chumming...

But to the credit of the dive operator they called in a smaller boat to bring them back early. We met a few of them later on at Grabber's and she was telling us she still felt like she was moving even though she was standing still. It sounds like it's going to be a while before she gets back into a boat again.

So tonite is New Year's Eve.

Everyone have a safe time, and good luck in the new year! Don't forget to punish the liver tonite. I have some more photos that should be in the bucket soon.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.....

The last few days have been difficult. It's challenging for us to decide whether to go to Nippers for conch fritters and frozen nippers or if we should go to Grabbers for conch fritters and frozen grabbers. The pricing is the same as well as both establishments having good fritters. I know the frozen nippers are a wee bit stronger but grabbers has better wifi.

Life can be so difficult sometimes.

Anyway we've been taking long walks on the beachs collecting shells and taking some more photos. The bucket has been updated. This photo is a collection of snail trails I happened to find on the beach.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.....

NOT!

Maybe in the sun but the fireplaces down here are not working hard. Besides, they didn't have any chestnuts at the local grocery store here on Guana Cay. So we're suffering without them. But we did find evaporated milk to go with the canned pumpkin we brought over from Florida. Don't let anyone know. The duty on pumpkin is severe we understand... Since we didn't want to pay 5.50 for a single frozen pie crust we made one from scratch.

The pie is good ok, we didn't wait for Christmas day. Here we are in front of a Christmas Ferris Wheel. It's sort of different to see the inflated decorations with the snow blowing around inside them. But hey, it's Christmas time!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Dan and Deb

Gumeleni Cay

Today the winds were light. They were something like 5 MPH so we could go about anywhere we wanted to with the dink because the water was like glass.

We anchored out in the sea of abaco a few miles north of Marsh Harbour and then went to Scotland Cay. We poked around a bit in between Scotland and Guana cay enough to see a few bone fish an some grey snappers.

From there we went north to the beach in the photo which is on Gumeleni Cay. This is just off the north end of Guana Cay. It was pretty sterile as you can see looking at the sand. On the other side of this small island is the Atlantic Ocean. Once again, the water was amazingly clear since the wind has been light for a couple of days. That gave everything a chance to settle out and moving slowly through the water we could see all sorts of sights. The star fish in the first shot had to be about 5 feet below the surface.

Spoil Island shell hunt

Spoil Island is an Island off of Loggerhead channel that is manmade. At one point the locals wanted to have cruise ships (Disney?) coming into Guana Cay. The deal folded either at the hands of environmentalists, or, at the hands of skippers that did not want to handle the channels in bad weather. They face directly into the Atlantic. Anyway, we took the dink over from Orchid bay. It was perhaps a 15 or 20 minute ride at speed to get there.

Upon pulling into the shallows from the deeper water (maybe 30 feet deep at the most) we spooked a couple of spotted rays that wound up going right under us. They had to have a wingspan of about 4 feet, and it took some maneuvering to make sure we wound up leaving them in one piece.

Once on the island, which may be a weekend anchorage kind of hang out for the locals, we picked up a few shells and headed back out.

On the way out we ran into a number of schooling baracuda. Also on the bottom we could see many large starfish. Obviously the water was extremely clear, and with the light winds the surface was flat enabling us to see deep into the water .

Maybe tomorrow we'll bring the rod and reel since the structure in this area supports quite a bit of fish. Either that or we head to Scotland Cay to the south where there is a channel to the Atlantic and perhaps more fish.

What does it take to travel to the Bahamas by boat?

We met an interesting couple the other day, Lou and Deb. They also have the dream of coming down here and going further to Georgetown. We used to think that Freedom was a bit cramped for this sort of jurney until we met them. The boat is just about totally independent of shore requirements and has 6 months of food on it!
All of this in something like 28 feet. Amazing, and it reflects nicely on some words (on the test floor) I heard in reference to our intentions to make this trip; "that's the biggest pile of sh*& he's come up with yet".


Suffice it to say, we are not roughing it, and my hat is off to this couple that are also enroute! Note that if you click the photo, you will see there are two outboards one for the dink and one for the sailboat. No impressive horsepower required here.

Checking the Zincs

Since we have migrated to the salt from fresh water, concern over zinc life has surfaced. So I took out the 2 mil suit and jumped in.

I know you folks are expecting 6-12 inches of white stuff back up at home. It looks like it'll be white for Christmas up there also!

Anyway, the zincs and underwater gear looked ok. We have a vibration on the port side so we must have whacked something with that prop again. However there was no damage apparant so hopefully we can make it back to the states where services are readily available as long as we take it easy.

Night fishing

The water here at Orchid bay is quite clear and once in a while I have been turning on the transom lights at night. One night we here this strange slashing noise and figure there is a large fish down there worth exerting a bit of extra effort to see. As it 'terned' out, there is this heron of some sort hanging out on the swim platform way past his bed time scarfing up all the bait fish! Obviously this bird had been on boats doing this before because it did not care if we made noise, it moved to a safer spot under the dink. Interesting...
With all the time we have on our hands maintenance items have been getting taken care of. Cetol has been (and will continue to be) applied to the bow pulpit and rails and other general clean up will get done.
I have to admit with being away from the Rondout the boat stays much cleaner on the outside. There is no gravel mine dust and train exhaust to settle on the boat. We get light grey streaks down here, not black streaks.
Hopefully the wind settles down today (as predicted) and we get to do some fishing.

What piece in this photo doesn't belong with the others?

Ok. I had nothing to do with it. It was like that when we walked up to it.

Anyway, today we walked quite a bit of the beach here on Guana Cay and if you were looking for a (almost) white Xmas, this is a pretty good start.

We checked out several of the places on the island which included 4 restaurants, a dive shop, grocery, post office and pharmacy. All within walking.

Today we had a pleasant surprise to find that a couple we met at West End and again at the GTC made the crossing around Whale Cay today. They had heard on the Single Side Band that if they did not do it today, they were going to be out of luck for quite a while. Tonite we are going to the Full Moon party at Nippers -> http://www.nippersbar.com/ which includes a special Prime Rib dinner for 20 bucks a head.

The ships log gps data was getting too large and that was what took down the converter. So the compressed file on the server has two sections now. If you have issues displaying the data in Google Earth, let me know.

Hint: Jimmy is all boned up.

Great Guana Cay fom Green Turtle Cay

This was the part of the trip that had us most concerned excepting the Gulf crossing. We could either go out into the Atlantic around Whale Cay from White Sound or we could attempt a shallow water passage to Marsh Harbour via Don't Rock. With the current weather forecasts being laced with gloom (gale warnings to the north affecting wave action locally), we were resolved to sitting at GTC for at least another week since Don't Rock is very risky due to the possibility of bottom bouncing from wave action. In other words, if a big wave trough pulls enough water out from under you, 'badabing' you bounce on the bottom. Not good in a 20 ton boat.

So this morning I decided to request local information via VHF 16. I received a reply from a sailboat that Whale Channel was only 2-3 foot rollers. Nothing serious. We were all surprised and another boat decided to run it also. A respected Caribean forcaster was all wet. He was suggesting it would be 6-8.

We checked out and stowed everything and left for the channel. As it turned out it was a bit rougher than reported but all's fair since the wind was building. When we were about 2 miles west of Whale Cay we found ourselves in 3-5 square on the bow. Freedom was plodding along at 9.5 knots and running the waves comfortably. We however were getting bounced around. A couple of 'holes in the water' produced deep breaths but otherwise going out around Whale Cay into the ocean was fine. We both thought we were going to be ok since we could see the Atlantic well enough to know there were no whitecaps.

Later as we swung around into Loggerhead channel we were in 3-5 quartering and again Freedom performed well.

And here we are at the Orchid Bay Marina/Resort. We are sitting in a washing machine because the wind is out of the South East. At least the bow is into it. It's sort of like Lincoln Harbor without all of the clanging (and burning boats as of late news). We're behind the break wall but it's kinda sloppy in here.

We walked over to Nippers and had some conch fritters and a round knowing that now the rest of the boat movement is in relatively easy waters with no large obstacles or weather dependencies. This photo is of us sitting at the rail looking out at the Atlantic wondering why it looks so calm here... The wind is at that time is now SW so the Atlantic near shore is in the lee.

I'll have GPS data shortly. The formatting tool is whining.

Touring GTC (Green Turtle Cay) by golf cart

This is the preferred method of travel since it's cheap. Only 55 bucks for 8 hours. I can rent a car from Enterprise, have them pick us up, drop us off and keep it for 24 hours cheaper. Hey that's life in the fast lane I guess..
It's easy enough to walk the island, but we have such a limited amount of time and so much to get done these days. We feel that given the island is about 3 miles long, renting a golf cart for 8 hours has mande us expert regarding where everything is.
There are a few roads here that are quite a bit of fun to drive, like the beach road on the east side. That's where I took a few of the photos in the bucket (see link on main blog page). But there are others that walking, let alone driving, is a bit risky because of all the ruts.

We'd like to move on to Orchid Bay at this point, but the weather is not cooperating at all. Few boats are willing to chance Whale Channel at this point given the recent wind direction and speed. Some have been turned around out there and come back in. Friday is looking like we get a very small window, but since we have been toasted by small windows on the way down here we are a bit concerned about pushing it.

There are much worse places to be stuck.

Bluff House and New Plymouth

Yesterday we walked over to the Bluff House Resort which is right across White Sound where Freedom is now. It's really a great looking facility and we will probably stop there on the way back up North.
The docks are in great shape and all the facilities are laid out conveniently. They are currently offering the same special GTC is, in that your dock fees are subtracted from your total restaurant bill.
Today we took a dink ride over to New Plymouth since the wind was out of the east and our path lay in the lee of Green Turtle Cay. Walking around the town was interesting. There are no tall buildings there, it all seems to squat down out of the wind. Duh.
We bought a few things and then went over to Black Sound to the boat yard and had a security cable made up for the dink. Riding a dink down here in clear water is quite a bit different from riding a dink on the Rondout Creek.
See the photo link for new photos.

Public Aquarium

Tonite the snapper were all around the transom. Hopefully this shot lends a little bit of realism to the clarity of the water.

We're not talkin' Rondout Creek here!

The water is about 4-5 feet right here and drops off under the props quite a bit. If you click this photo it will probably open up quite a bit for you. It was interesting to note that the first night, we had all these bait fish all over the transom eating up the krill, or very small fish. Tonite, when these fish showed up, all the bait fish from 1/2 to 3 inches was gone. Ya think?

Green Turtle Cay and Points South

We made reservations today for extended stays at a couple of marinas. When we get the next decent break in the weather we head over to Orchid Bay. Probably in a week or so we'll leave Green Turtle where we are now. The weather looks ugly for a while with high winds again.
After Dec at Orchid Bay and others, we have Feb booked at the Sea Spray Marina, and March is booked at Treasure Cay. We're thinking if those calling us to visit are serious, that Treasure Cay (March) is a good time to visit since it has an airport on the same cay, and, we will be there for a while.
Candidates must be able to sleep in a V-berth which has a disadvantage of being a bit cramped and some wave noise all night.

See the photo bucket link on the main page for photo updates now.

Well the sun is setting on a great day here, and it's time to stop hacking away at the pool side and take a dip before the sun goes down. With that I'll rest my glass and turn my attention where it belongs...

Sale Cay and Green Turtle Cay

These two parts of the journey have been kind to us. We left for Sale Cay thursday bright and early with about 10 other boats.

Passing through the shallows at Indian Cay was not that bad, we had a few feet to spare for the most part. Everyone took it slow and easy since the channel is narrow and not marked at all. What one does is plug some way points into the gps and fly by wire so to speak. But once through the water gets to all of ten feet deep all the way to Sale Cay. I have no idea why they called it Sale Cay since there are no stores there thus no bargains. All there is there are mosquitos, which stay ashore thankfully.

Arriving we dropped anchor and immediately it started to drag. As it turned out the Fortress was not good in sand and weeds, so out when the CQR. The fortress clogged with weeds and then bounced along the bottom. Ray are you out there? The CQR held like a rock not the Danforth! It's a totally different game down here and we are glad we had a selection of anchors to work with. Once sorted out the sun went down, and the water turned into a mirror that blurred the definition of sky and horizon. It was too dark to photograph however.

In the morning on we went until arriving here at Green Turtle. This place is how all marinas should be (except for the no-see-ums). Your restaurant bill is subtracted from your dock fees.

GPS tracks are uploaded, and photos are going to the bucket soon. I have to start commenting on the photos... I'll update this entry when the photos are there with the link.

Edit:

Updated the main page to include a link to the photo bucket, and started commenting the photos so they make a little sense.

It's time to start moving again...

Ever since Friday last when we crossed the Gulf Stream, we have been kicking back waiting for the weather to lighten up a bit. We need two days of light winds to get around to Green Turtle Club and Marina.
This trip is composed of a couple of legs around 50 or 60 nm each. That means we anchor out since there is really not much in between these two places (West End and Green Turtle). The accepted anchorage is Sale Cay. It's pretty much the midway point and offers good protection from North and East winds. Since the prediction is that the wind will be composed of these directions, we should be good to go.
And many folks here at west end feel the same way since we are all leaving the marina tomorrow headed for the same place.
We are going to take the short cut through Indian Cay, while several others that pull 5 feet of draft are headed further north to Memory Rock before they turn east to Sale Cay. We'll all be in touch via radio.

But-

To bring you up to date, we took the local bus service from West End to Freeport. The bus is your basic 8 passenger van with a small diesel engine. It was actually a great ride. Everyone that got onto the bus said good morning to everyone and everyone on the bus responded in same.
It was only 7 bucks apiece each way instead of what would have been 70 bucks for a taxi.
We landed at the Straw Mall in Freeport, and it was immediately depressing. It looks like it got whacked a ton by the hurricanes of '04 etc. and it never recovered. Very sad. There were only a handful of vendors sticking it out.
So we hopped onto the bus and went over to LuCaya. It seems like this is where all of the tourism industry has migrated to leaving Freeport behind.
We had lunch and bought some things like sandals. I was going to buy a Hawaiian Sling to spear lobsters with but Deb said that spear would not sit well in the cramped corners of the micro bus so that was out. Lunch in RumRunners and then back onto the bus for the ride back.

Here at the marina in West End, the water has finally settled down and we can see the bottom again. Last night we had some 3 foot tarpon swimming around in the transom lights looking for bait fish. Tonite, even tho the water is clear, all we see is the small stuff again. Perhaps as the sun sets further more action will occur.

So while we are on the move, I am sure we will not be updating the blog until we reach Green Turtle. Hopefully the only challenge on these legs is the anchorage and passing through Indian Cay.

In this photo, we see the lobster fisherman at work. There are a few of them here, and they are of humble means. They drag a beat up cooler around by a line, and hunt out lobsters. They are out there all morning swimming around harvesting lobsters. When the man came around the dock with his cooler I bought three for 20 bucks. We have had several meals out of them, and I hope he had a couple of meals or other things he needed with the dollars we gave him.

Gmail ID

By the way the Gmail id is damapes@gmail.com

It's warm and windy today!

The forcast called for 30+ knots of wind and we got it. We don't want to think about what it is like on the Gulf Stream now, let alone tomorrow when the wind clocks around and comes from the north (bucking the stream). Supposedly it's 5-7 out there now, headed for 6-8 when the wind shifts.

If you click on the photo and sqint a bit you can see a cruise ship out there, probably a few miles off shore headed south (Freeport?). Not quite in the stream but certainly farther than most would go today! The NOAA station -> http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/buoy/SPGF1.html

had the wind gusts peaked out at 49 knots. This station is about a 5 minute walk from where the boat is. In a prior post I showed the approach to the marina and the tower on the left of the inlet is where the NOAA station is. Not the water tower, but the spindly little tower on the left of the land mass.

But what I don't understand is this. The boat has been rocking around all day, and the crew is not having an issue. Canvas is blowing off boats, and the party tents at the marina are in trouble.

And 1 foot waves while underway do the crew in? I think there's some federal money coming our way to study this. Now that we are retired and relaxing we can rejuvenate ourselves and apply our minds to this important aspect of boating.

Connectivity... Verizon.... Skype to the rescue!

Looking at the photo you might wonder if Freedom ever had it so good, but to be honest with you neither did we.

More photos in the bucket -> http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/danno53/Southbound/

Anyway, I had spoken with Verizon about the Bahamas and whether or not our cell phone would work. They said yes.

They lied.

They also told me I could have DSL at our condo, and lied, and then I found out our neighbor has it!! They are just about done for us...

So a dock mate here in West End reminded me about Skype. It's great. I bought a month subscription and I can call anywhere in the US as long as I have an internet connection.

If you want to call us though, down load skype and send me some mail with your skype id. I can send you the skype id I am using and you can send us yours. I believe skype voip is free as long as you don't call a land line. It was simple to set up and it worked the first time. Unbelievable stuff!! The only requirement to calling a skype user is the user has to be on line (skype started), and so do you.

Given how much a cell phone would have cost this is a fantastic and practical alternative.

Use our gmail account to send the id, please don't post it in this blog as a comment.

We've arrived safely at West End Bahamas

We pulled out of North Palm Beach Fla early today just before sunrise. Upon arriving at the inlet, we looked out and saw calm seas and went for it. The first half of the ride presented us with 1-2 foot rollers off the port side which was nothing serious since they were spaced far enough apart.

The sea was flat starting mid gulf stream on . We could not have asked for better. Well, maybe we could but we're very happy with what we were delt today.

The water is clear, the sky is also (for the mean time) so we are going to kick back for a week and soak it up for a while.

This photo is of the marina entrance after crossing the gulf. There isn't much over here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know we're not in keeping with Thanksgiving since we don't have ourselves surrounded in Fall colors etc. but we are thankful for everything. We're very fortunate to have made it this far.

I know this guy (males have a fuzzy yellow head) isn't a turkey, but "we got to represent".

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fun day out with folks from up North

If you're eating lunch and this is the view from your table, it ain't bad.


We had some great company today when Pete B. stopped by with his family. We had lunch at Hattie's on the ICW in North Palm Beach and it was great. I don't know how expensive the place was because Pete, bless him, picked up the tab!
So we came back to the boat and had a conference call with Mark D.. He was really happy to hear the corona's popping and about how warm it was down here (not).

In spite of having such a great time at lunch I managed to get the boat washed. We are wishing we went across today, but since the small craft warnings went up in the late afternoon, we are wondering how bad it was later in the afternoon. We've been out in slop on this trip already and we felt they were a bit slow on that call down by Norfolk.

The crossing that got away

It was looking good to go across tomorrow, until the front sped up. It leaves us with a 4-5 hour window to cross and that isn't going to cut it. Since we normally don't push Freedom to 15 knots anymore, there is some hesitation to run at that speed for several hours.
So we're gonna sit this one out. At some point we will look at things and if the future leaves us nothing but short windows we will opt out and head further south. Heck, we can fly home for xmas easily then, and pick up the car, and look around for a place to live down here. Hmm...
Anyway, that would not be the Bahamas and this doesn't sit well with either of us.

Shopping via dink

We dropped the dink off the transom for the first time in what seems like 2 months and used it to go shopping. It took quite a while to get the gas back into the carb but once there it ran fine all day.
I should have brought the GPS so everyone could follow along, all in all the trip was about 10 miles. If you use google earth, start where we ended up, hang a left at the marina entrance, and then take your first left into the housing areas. Follow that around heading south and then east to Little Munion Island. Then continue south under the bridge to the first marina on the right. Then come back the same way because the water is rough on the lake. Except use the east side of the lake since the wind was out of the north east and we didn't want to get soaked. Wet was enough, soaked is not good.

We saw another manatee while in the dink but were unable to get near it. They are really quite shy from our experience anyway.

But you know you are getting south when you see a 4 foot Iguana hanging out on a tree soaking up the sun with his throat puffed out. Deb was not interested in putting the dink under it. Neither was I in reality, I merely suggested the idea to get a reaction. Note to self- lay off the Iguana deal...

If you are in Riviera Beach Fla, and need boating related items, Boaters Warehouse is where you want to go. Several maintenance items and one expensive other item, an EPIRB. It has GPS built into it so our location goes along with the emergency signal. Let's all hope we don't need to use this.

So tomorrow we'll sit tight clean things up as well as make other preparations.

North Palm Beach Fla.

Here we are in North Palm Beach. It must be 70 out, puffy white clouds here and there, and in the marina there is a light breeze. Off shore, it's quite different. f you want to know what we are up against, go to the weather underground and fill in zip code 33408. The local forcast looks great, and believe me compared to Kgn. NY it is.
But up along the top you will see the marine link, so click that. You will see a map with clickable areas including Florida. Following that you are then presented with a map that is divided into areas, two of which are subsets of the trip to West End Bahamas.
Clicking on those will give you the marine forcast for those areas. Looking at the specifics of the gult stream one might see the folly in trying to cross it before Monday. Even then the window is narrow. With a small passage like a sound we're up for it. When it comes to the Gulf Stream the pucker factor sets in and we are less likely.
So we have a feeling here we will sit. How long? Who knows...

Fort Pierce Florida

The ride down from Cocoa beach was great. We sat in shorts and Tees soaking up sun within the enclosure while sailboaters wore the winter garb again. Today we traveled 60 nm. and arrived at 2:30. At this point the wind decided to pick up to about 20 knots with gust higher still. All while we were docking. There was quite a bit of radio chatter between the dock master and myself because they were trying to squeeze us into a very tighbt slip here at the Fort Pierce City Marina. We settled with landing at the fuel dock to fill up first and then we all chatted a bit.
A solution was arrived at where we would move backwards spin the boat around and wind up in a slip bow in from where we were on the fuel dock.
Easy eh?
Try it some time without bow thrusters. The dock hands just started rolling their eyes knowingly given the situation. But we did it fine, and they all smiled when I said (Ray you out there?) "We don't need no stankin' bow thrusters". Everyone else that pulled in needed them and slapped away at the poles.

On the fun side we were followed by the dolphins today for what must have been 30 miles. I left a clip of them in action next to the boat. I dare anyone to deny these two were not having fun!

Crack o'dawn again and away we go

We pulled out of the Adventure Yacht Harbor marina (nothing really adventurous) around 6.30 AM as the sun was starting to light the sky. Out the very narrow channel to the ICW in and out of gear since the tide was out and the water was 'skinny'. No problems here so with the nav lights on we moved south.

The ICW was empty, and the water was like glass. It was great to be out there alone. I've uploaded a few photos from the day at the usual place http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/danno53/Southbound/

We have become accustomed to the dolphins coming right at the boat and disappearing under the bow. It's almost like they are having fun with us. We always wondered where they wound up until today.

A whole gang of them came at us head on north of Titusville. As usual the duck right under the bow and disappear. We had no idea where they went and then Deb says, what's that?? There is this slapping noise on the starboard side. Sure enough, there they are, riding along in the stern wake of the boat, very close to the boat, having a great time. They were jumping out clear of the water, and slapping down sideways like a bunch of drunken sailors... It was quite a bit of fun to watch them. They and others had probably been there all along several times but since they were so close to the boat we had never seen them before.

This gang stayed with us quite a while and really livened up the afternoon!

We also saw a few manatee and of course, there was the manatee patrol (deputies) looking for boaters going too fast. We escaped investigation but boats in front of us and behind us were pulled over.

And now we find ourselves in Cocao Village where we had lunch at the Margeux Cafe. It was terrific and if you are ever down here, it is a great stop for a bite to eat.

The photos are up, and the tracks will follow when the server cooperates.

A note about the GPS data

Yesterday I was working with the old laptop (T30) and I noticed that to see the gps tracks using google earth I had to zoom in quite a bit. If you have issues like this google maps might be a better alternative.

Daytona Par Deux

Ok we're back down in Daytona only by boat this time.

Who turned off the heat darn it? I don't care if it's 9 in Ak, you folks like it that way up there. It was 38 F this morning. What a change from 65 at night for the last several days. I guess we happened to pick the best time to stop at St. Augustine. Yesterday we worked on the boat and took care of errands.
We had a slight issue with one of the enclosure panels. It looked to me like it was not sewn. So we took it to Cooper's Canvas in St. Augustine and he repaired it for free! Next it was time to change the oil so we took the boat out and ran her up to warm the oil and then pulled it all. The marina even had oil disposal facilities. Thank you Camachee Cove Marina! Even free car usage three times!!
I found a loose transmission fitting and tighted that up also.
Then it was on to lunch at The Reef where we had the best Conch Fritters we have ever had in the States. The ocean view at this place was terrific and watching the pelicans skim the crest of waves flying in formation was fun.
Some more driving around looking at the sights, and then early to bed since we woke at 5:00 am today.
And here we are at Adventure Yacht Harbor.

The safe arrival cocktail is down that hatch and it's time to walk to the ocean. Pix coming soon the gps data is loaded.

More Touring

I kept the Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses on today. St. Augustine has a fort named Castillo de San Marcos. It's a really interesting visit with displays of old cannonry and life in a fort way back when. For the day it certainly was robust. The view of the inlet back out to sea is impressive and for the day certainly strategic.
Would I want to live there? Nope. It was basically all about munitions and some meager sleeping quarters. No HDTV, or even radio. Wait. This was the 1600's. But they found ways to amuse themselves having left graffiti around. It was faded and to date some of it escapes translation.

Moving on we visited the ubiquitous Alligator Farm. Lotso big fat reptiles that snap. The high point of this was watching a cute young blond tease them with previously frozen (sorry no fresh stuff here) thawed out rats. She had good aim and could take a 1 pound rat and bounce it off a gator. In spite of landing them right next to the gator's head, sometimes it took several minutes for the deed to be done. They move that slowly.

Today I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen. Not close up, but close enough for me. It has an abdomen about the size of a thumb. The web spanned a pool of water between two trees. If you walked into this web, I'm willing to bet you would freak. This spider might be able to take out a small bat, but sparing that, it could certainly do a job on someone's underwear. Click the photo and scroll around. It's not the best photo in the world but you'll get an idea of the scope of the size of the crite.

Updated the photobucket. http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/danno53/Southbound/

Down to Daytona

By car. We're still waiting on some mail to show up and the new oil we have has too much ash in it for these older engines. So Monday we go back to the store and swap it for something else or we don't change it yet.
Down A1A we drove looking at houses and condos. Some areas on the barrier don't have enough infrastructure to be comfortable IMHO. That and all it's going to take is one good storm and these places are gone the same way Galvaston Tx..
There is still quite a bit of Hurricane evidence around. Hotels in Daytona are closed and have strewn furniture bent metal and other indications of wind damage. Others are gone and buldozed out.
However the area is still quite healthy and vibrant. One thing we have noticed is that there are no mexicans filling low end jobs around us. At least we have not seen them yet. They must have to hide better down here. Even cooks, cleaners and dish washers are all non Hispanic. I wonder if there is some difference in local policy down here. As soon as we started going south we started seeing all sorts of folks doing boat washing and other work at that level.

It's up!

Today we toured more of St. Augustine and had a great lunch once again. Just walking around can be quite a bit of fun when you consider how much time we have been "Couped Up" on Freedom traveling.
We have to admit, we were surprised how may children were on tour in a tourist trap. Like, would you really want your kids to learn how to by taffy and praleens or would you want them to learn something more constructive (like how to play a video game (ha! sorry)).
The fort was completely swamped by tours so we gave up on that and decided to take another pass at it tomorrow hoping for a lull.

So at 7:54 PM it was dark. Then at 7:55 the sun started to come up again. Ok, we knew it was coming, but that's what it looked like. All the way up here instead of down at the Cape, it looked like the sun was coming up from the wrong angle. Then out of this light a trail of flame becomes obvious and you know the bird is on the way up.
God Bless 'em! Go Baby GO!
It starts to arc across the sky, and we hear a subdued rumble. And then it starts to accelerate. I mean, it starts to accelerate! The distance this thing starts to cover is astounding. And in a blink, it's through the clouds and out of sight.
We hear people all around cheering, and for once, we all feel like one pushing the envelope of humanity.
I wish we were closer.

Saint Augustine

Today we rented a car from Enterprise using my AARP card. Feeling somewhat antique.

Anyway, we toured the lighthouse where I walked up to the top. It was particularly refreshing to see that a sense of Freedom still exists in the USA. If anyone has been to a national monument lately, they have experienced long lines induced by "puff tests" where they blow air around you looking for explosives. You know what I am talking about if you have been to the Statue of Liberty.

It was great to get to the top of a landmark and look out at the surrounding area.

We also visited the Lightener Museum where we were able to take in the collection the man pulled together. It was an impressive collection from around the world worth seeing.

And then there was lunch at the Conch House. They have these tables up on poles that offer a good view. Sort of unstable but fun and the food was very good. If you click on the photo you will see that they carved faces on all of the poles supporting the deck. This was an unexpected treat that reminded me of gargoiles that were carved in stone at some cathedrals. Ok, it's a stretch but all of the faces are different here as well, and they were fun to look at.

St. Augustine is certainly worth a look if you are in the area, and we have yet to hit all of the old stuff in town.

I've uploaded some additional photos to the bucket.

Yo Rich. Remember this?

The ol' Scottish Inn.. What went on there?

Anyway, here we are in Saint Augustine. It's like 80 degrees and well, the AC is on. The trip down the ICW today was pleasant but a rude awakening. Looking at all the houses lining the ICW one quickly realises exactly how little one is really worth. These places are unfreakin' believable.
I've got to start my own business.
The ride down also treated us to some airplanes flying formation aerobatics, and a helicopter dropping off supplies to crews working on the high tension lines across the ICW. I'll upload photos of those things to the site I have posted earlier.
We are at the Camachee marina and they have not one, but two courtesy cars that the boaters can use for two hours at a time. All you have to do is put gas in it. This place must be expensive you say?
Nope.
It's cheaper for us to stay here than it is to stay for a week at the Rondout Yacht Basin (the home port).
So we are going to rent a car, wait for mail to show up and then move on. We figure we have about 4-5 days of travel left in Florida before making the hop.

Uploaded photos to -> http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/danno53/Southbound/

And uploaded latest GPS data. I have to admit that stuff is really accurate. If you look at the data you can see exactly which slip we are in.

Down To Florida!

Ok, a major accomplishment. We made it to Florida. It took 5 weeks to get here but we got this much done. Over 1100 nautcal miles under the belts. Today's route took us out Jekyll Sound then out St Andrew Sound and back in. It was quite rough out there but since it was a quartering sea the boat handled it quite well. Some things flew around inside again, but all in all the passage was ok. In this photo we are on the down hill side of the ride coming back into Cumberland River having been around the outermost bouy. There is a boat off our stern, and they were lucky since their boat was obviously stabilized.
We were fortunate since the small craft advisory was going up at 10 AM and we were back inside at 9:30. Not much room to spare.

Destination Golden Isle (St. Simons Ga.)

Today we really moved south. Almost 80 nm. today. We traversed a few spots where the water was very shallow and had no issues. Traffic was very light and tides worked with us. If you look at where we left from today the tide was going out, and we rode it down. When we crossed the first inlet the tide was coming in, and we rode that up. All along the way we had ups and downs in speed as we crossed over the inlets because as we approached an inlet the tide would be coming in, and pushing us back. When we crossed the inlet the flow was with us (go with the flow they say) and we picked up speed.
More dolpin diving under the bow and some bald eagles. There was one island that had wild goats and cows on it.
At the end of the day I opened 'er up to blow things out again and the port engine refused to hit max rpm. Having looked at the fuel filters I found algae on that filter only and oh boy we have a spare filter. So that will get swapped out and hopefully this is the end of it for now.

Tomorrow Florida? We hope so.

We have a few hundred (I think) miles in Fla. before we make the hop so I'm thinking it will be at least two weeks before we get to the Bahamas. We are going to stop for a week in Fla. to make sure we have adequate spare filters (see above and this is wise sage advice from others we have met) and change the oil. The lads (engines) deserve it. All this idling around "on the inside" has to have contaminated the oil with fuel since the engines are not being pushed enough. Older Detroit diesels are known for this.

Isle of Hope GA.

The Isle Of Hope is a good stop, loaded with biting no-seeums, expensive dockage, and fuel is pricey.Other than that, it's fine.
We saw plenty of Dolphin today since we crossed so many deeper water inlets. They home in on the bow of the boat and dive under it. I'd love to know what they are up to down there but having seen Jo Jo the dolpin down in Turcs and Caicos we have an idea. He swam under the props upside down. We saw him do this under the dingy while we were snorkling in clear water.

But another state is behind us and we are hoping for Florida in a couple of more days.

Beaufort SC (or learning the definition of Southern Hospitality)

Today we had a great day on the water moving another 60 miles. At the end of the day the satelite dish need another couple of degrees of elevation to hit the bird. About the only peeve with the day was a moron with a Sport Fishing boat (Sportie) that had to be 60 feet long. He was flaming everyone and threatening damage to boats if they did not move out of his way. We survived this and wound up at a terrific marina named Port Royal Landing Marina.

They also have floating concrete docks like others but today was their end of season bash. They rolled out a couple of kegs, red and white wine, a ton of great Southern Barbeque along with fixings, said a blessing, and we all chowed down. But not only this, they lent us a car so we could go shopping!

We were able to share dinner with a delivery captain and a pilot for the tankers etc. on the C&D canal. Both had many great stories and shared experience with us that made us feel good about the way we have been managing traffic on the ICW. They also agreed that the Sporties are the ones that make life difficult on the ICW.

We all wonder why the big boy in his big boat didn't put on his big pants and play in the big water with his big boat since it was flat as a pancake out on the ocean, and the distance was much shorter.

Updated the Southbound.kmz file with today's track.

Charleston Sc.

Can you see the end of this dock? Click the photo for more detail if you can't. This was early in the afternoon. Later on the dock filled up with megayachts. In fact they call this the Megadock. Not only is this the Megadock, it's the fuel dock. They fueled us where we are, and they can fuel boats all the way out to the end. This is a floating concrete dock that trancends all we have seen to date. The sailboat mast over our bow lights up at night and is nothing less than spectacular.

It's pretty obvious that the city of Charleston Sc. had it's act together when they decided to upgrade the waterfront. This is a no holds barred upscale, gotta have a golf cart to get around marina.

The photo however, does not do the proximity of the other (expensive) boats justice. We have about four feet off each end. It was a tight squeeze and the dock hands gave me a few thumbs up. When I shut her down, I yelled out "we don't need no stanking bow thrusters!" and we all had a great laugh.

We're glad we stopped here to adjust for the next day's travel and the associated tide. We wound up only doing 11 miles today but it was worth it to spend the afternoon in Charleston. It's a great little city with many pleasant streets to walk around in and places to dine. We had lunch at Hyman's and it was fantastic. I don't think we've had better seafood elsewhere. And their aquarium is also worth a look. The 10$ fee to get in was well worth it.

We could use another day here.

Uploaded latest Garmin data to Southbound.kmz and added more photos to the bucket. They have been sorted newest first. Hopefully this pans out well.

http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/danno53/Southbound/

Belle Isle To Isle Of Palms Sc

A great day to be boating down here. We actually had a few of the enclosure panes opened up to let cool air in. For the most part the terrain was unprotected swamp like and flat. However there was quite a bit of interesting wildlife that included swarms of dove like birds roosting, a pair of nesting bald eagles, several varieties of herons and etc..

Since the water was calm on the outside we had few of the 'sporties' to deal with. All in all a very calm day on the water.

One thing we have learned about the folks down here in the Carolinas is that they will go to any length to ensure they have their own private dock. Some of the walkways out to the docks have to be an 1/8 mile long... A length of several hundred yards seems to be normal. I am willing to bet they have paid more for those than some of us have paid for our houses.

As well, there are example after example of extravagent houses that are partially finished along the ICW. These are all probaby examples of the buy out from the sub-prime debacle. It's sickening to see people start these and then get a government bail out..

Updated Southbound kmz file.

BarefootLanding To Belle Isle Gardens Sc.

The day's travel went smoothly. No issues, and in spite of cloudy skies we were comfortable. This was the first time we saw some real live spanish moss, and along with that, there was this sign where they clean fish.

That was a bit of a surprise since I did not expect they had those reptiles in this area. I guess we'll have to watch what we step on now.

Myrtle Beach from Southport

Ok! Another state crossed. We're in Sc. now and it feels good to knock off another state. The ride down was short today only 31 miles. It was a dreary rainy day but we stayed dry until it was time to fuel up and dock at the end of the trip.
Along the way we saw a flock of migrating swallows. I don't think I've ever seen this many birds flying together. It was a massive ball of life swirling away in confused flight that somehow managed to have direction. Very odd but it looked like they were having fun at it.
So here we are at the Coquina Yacht Club, and we decide to take a walk. We leave the compount and are walking through a parking lot when out of the blue a van pulls and honking the horn. It's Ed from F dock! LMAO. He recognized us while driving by.
We made arrangements and stopped by a bit later on, having a great evening catching up with some buddies from RYB. It's a small world.

PS When you look at some of the tracks using google earth or google maps, you may see some ragged course lines. If they are near a bridge, it's normal since we may have had to wait for the bridge to open. While waiting we drift around a bit. This last leg has a good example of that.
Yesterday we were all doing that at another bridge. There were about 10 of us and one of the motoryachts lost it. The captain decided to back up for reasons unknown to us and all of the boats behind us. There was no wind, everyone was calm and relaxed. I wound up having to scoot around him and hold the position he gave up. Believe me there were a few sail boats behind us that were getting paranoid. They don't have twins they can use to their maneuvering advantage.

Some People have too much money.....

Traveling down the ICW today we saw this. It put a capper on the day. Anyway we are down to Southport Nc., looking for Myrtle Beach tomorrow.

Fun with Tugs

Remember to contact a tug in tight channels. But temper the urge to contact the captain depending on the traffic and other conditions....

So here we are on Adam's Creek heading towards Beaufort NC (not SC sorry we don't go that fast ). We meander down at 8 knots and eventually we catch up with a pusher with a barge named Pamlico headed for Calico Creek. The channel is narrow and lined with houses and business so I'm in no hurry to pass and hang back a bit. Eventually it happens. Here comes a 43 Ocean followed by a large Hatt sporty. No doubt they were going to pass and the Ocean did that. He squeezed in behind the tug right in front of us. So he peeks on the stbd side of the tug, gives up and moves over to the port. He's hanging around right off the tugs transom trying to find the cajones to pass.

So I sensed the waffling and hailed the tug; "Pamlico south bound this is Freedom. We are second in line behind you has anyone arranged passage yet? ""NO!" And anyone could tell by the tone he was p1ssed about it because it was a narrow channel and he had all sorts of small craft zipping around. We were the least of his concerns given all the slow sailboats and center consoles."Ok Pamlico, it looks like it finally opens up here, do you mind if we pass?""Sure come on around on the stbd side"Ok at this point a$$hole without calling the tug is on the port side of the tug's stern and we open 'er up. It's good to open up a diesel once in a while since we were basically idling all day. So we hit 18 knots and blew by on the stbd.. Ocean who was well to port was looking at us like WTF? How does a boat like that plane out and blow by me??? We thanked the tug, and settled in ahead and waited for the sparks. Both sporties came by. The Ocean rocked our world because he was insulted. The hatt went by and slowed but still rocked our world. We laughed our arses off since neither had contacted the tug to arrange passage and wound up on the wrong side of the channel because he gave us the stbd side...

Down to Swansboro Nc. (Dudley's Marina

A little rough around the edges but the fuel is cheaper and the people here are great. The trip here was smooth, another great day of fantastic weather. Once we were close to Beaufort Nc. we started to see dolphins. Then we came around Beaufort inlet and continued on the icw. Many miles in we were still seeing dolphin pods. All the way to Bogue inlet.

Think about that...
Do you recall any stories about people chasing dolpins in NJ because they were lost?

I'm beginning to think that the folks in Jersey have their heads in a dark spot and that the dolphins were fine. We've been where those dolpin were and the ones down here were much further inland than those Jersey dolphin were.

Tomorrow looks like a long day. We're going to try for Southport.

Down to Oriental Nc.

Yesterday we left Dowry Creek having a reasonable night's sleep until 4:30 AM. It was a very cold night so we left the heat on. Around that time one of the CO detectors went off and well, that was that. I figured it was a one hit wonder and so did Deb so we got the other detector and moved it to the same location. That spot just happened to be about a foot from my head. We fell back asleep and withing 15 minutes they both started sounding.

It was at this point we found ourselves awake looking for who would have a gasoline powered generator running in the marina. I went outside and walked a bit of the dock but heard nothing. Perhaps somone had a coal stove going somewhere also. We never found out.

The frost on the fordeck was thick and in bear feet I went out there and retrieved all the lines and off we went around sunrise. After about a 1/2 hour of this I decided shoes and socks were a requirement.

The weather was spectacular being clear calm and warm thanks to the enclosure. The sun heats up the flybridge wonderfully. We sit up there in T shirts while all the sailboats and express cruisers we pass are in full fuzzy edged hood winter attire.

Down the Pungo to Pamlico river. Look east and all you see is water and it was all flat as a pancake. From here we went along Goose Creek and associated canals south to Bay River. This is where we met our friends in the photo.

Looking out east again is Pamlico Sound, and again the water was abolutely flat! This made the rest of the day along the Neuse River to Oriental pleasant.

Cell phone access is poor in this area, and all we have is wifi (go figure) but I cannot access the server to load the latest GPS data.

Yo Grasshoppah!

We are still very happy to have a full enclosure. We ain't tired of it yet. You lose.

It was 33 this morning when we pulled out and there is a freeze warning for the o'nite tonite. So where was it we was gonna be tired of the full enclosure?

A good day of progress

We pulled out of Elizabeth City Nc. with the 8:30 opening of the Route 158 bridge. From there we motored down the Pasquotank River into Albemarle Sound. Initially things were calm and the wind was out of the Northwest making for a following sea. As we got into the heart of the sound much to our chagrin the wind kicked up and so did the water. When we were across the sound turning into Alligator river we were in 3-5. At least it was a following sea for the most part. Nothing too serious but enterring a new inlet in rough water is not exactly high on our priority list of fun type activities.

At least there were no submarines this time.

Down the Alligator river we go, and the bridge across it opened up immediately for us. This is one very busy bridge since two ICW routes merge here and there is quite a bit of boating traffic. The operator was polite with everyone in spite of numerous radio calls.

From here we entered the Alligator River Pungo River canal and had an extremely sedate ride to Dowry Creek.

74 miles today, our longest day on the water. The average speed was about 8 knots and the boat held up well with the new water pump. In spite of being a major PITA to install, it is doing fine. Thank goodness I did mechanical work on the streets of NYC while growing up.

Driving around for parts (Kitty Hawk)

We drove back to where we were on Friday night (Portsmouth) to get one of the water pumps. Too bad the issue was not noticed that night. Oh well.. Anyway this was the one really needed. Next we drove down past Kitty Hawk to Wanchese to get the corresponding pump for the other engine in case it decided to fall out since the engines are the same age. They are different pumps since the engines spin in opposite directions (that's so we have counter rotating props which is appropriate in twin engine installations).

Seeing Kitty Hawk was a surprise for Deb since she had been to Kitty Hawk when she was younger. There used to be sand dunes and alot of open space. It is all built up with homes and condos now. The dunes are gone, except for one small strip about a 1/4 mile long on the bay side. There were quite a few people walking around on them, so it must be a tourist attraction.

Kitty Hawk seemed out of place given the over development and in spite of being a fan of aviation, I passed up the opportunity to visit it.

Since there are gale warnings for Albemare Sound we'll continue to wait here and do some maintenance. Boats are like houses...

Elizabeth City Nc.

Ok the day started out well, nice smooth water, no traffic. All the bridges opened up for us so we could pass through quickly.
Giong through Norfolk to the start of the DSC (Dismal Swamp Canal) via water is a humbling experience. Every where you look there is a war ship. They are huge. The machinary that supports them is larger. Think about dry docking a cruiser.. I mean a US Navy Cruiser. Or set your goal a bit lower and consider dry docking a destroyer. Hopefully that lends a bit of perspective. If you have been to the Intrepid air craft carrier in NYC think of that as medium sized ok?
And so it was at dawn. Police boats were everywhere. This is a by product of 9-11. Before that the lockmaster at the first lock in the DYC said he could have backed up to a destroyer and hauled it out if he wanted. In spite of the Mason Dixon Line we all agreed that 9-11 changed the world and that this religious war was not to be taken lightly.
Into the DSC we go making great time. We caught the 8:30 lock and motored on without delay again! Eventually after driving down a canal that is very narrow we wind up at the bridge/lock pair that lets us down for the ride into Elizabeth NC. We have to wait here since it has scheduled openings. I go into the bilge and do some maintenance and notice a funny smell. It's antifreeze. I check around and sure enough the circulating pump for the starboard engine coughed up a seal and the engine bled out a couple of gallons of antifreeze.
Bad luck you say? To some extent yes. But look at it this way. Suppose the engine cacked while we were coming into Norwalk in the rough water? That would have been extremly bad timing! In that sense we are very lucky because the pump let go the very next day. So there is a silver lining here, even tho the whole situation sucks.
It loos like another 3 day layover. Fortunately I have tools, all I need is a pump. By the way a distributor is up in Portsmouth where we stayed last night. Yup. That'd be insult to injury.
I'll post a pic of the marina we are in now. The slip is 15 feet wide and we are 14. The owner was calling me to say don't come in when I backed it into the slip!
At least they have wifi and the sat tv is up and running.

Updated the Southbound file (use refresh if it spits up) and also added to the photobucket.

http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/danno53/Southbound/

Skip to the last page for the newer stuff.

Portsmouth Va. We're off the Cheasapeake!

Today we had a break. Not a large one, but a break. As it turned out we wound up with a 6 hour window when there would not be a small craft warning from Windmill Point to Cape Henry. We grabbed it and while it started out well enough things got rough.
The forcast was for 2 feet off Windmill but once down below New Point Comfort it grew to 2-3. For these areas the forcast was correct. But once south of the York River entrance channel it was more like 3-5. Fortunately Freedom is well built and there were no reverberations. Just a whump when it hit a wave. As well the water came at us from the South South East which enabled us to quarter the seas and make good progress. Things flew all over the place down stairs. Deb was locked into her chair (logically) not being allowed to move since she is a klutz. So it gets even better when we get near Horseshoe Flats off Phoebus since now we have to run a beam sea to get where we want to be.
A couple of minutes of this made it clear that was not going to happen. We continued to quarter seas until we hit marker Red 16 and ran with the seas. This was one of those challenging following seas deal that I really don't enjoy driving the boat in, but heck ya gotta get home. Plodding along surfing the boat we hear 'Securitayyyy all stations, this is the CG cutter so and so and we are escorting a Naval Warship out to such and such. All vessels are required to stay 100 yards off all US vessels and this is punishable by up to 250K and a number of years in jail"... Oh and by the way, deadly force will be used if required..
Talk about raining on your parade. I'm having a tough time keeping the boat in the channel and now there's a sub coming right at us!
Well, we are here to talk about it.
The folks at the Portsmouth Boating Center are terrific offering a ride to a restaraunt and diesel at 2.69 a gallon. They go the extra mile here!

Deltaville and a special picture

We walked into and back from Deltaville today. Ordered and ate a whole pizza just like the old days when I could eat a whole pie by myself only Deb had a couple of slices. I have to bulk up for the warmer weather...

Anyway, this picture is one of a painting a special person did for us. She probably doesn't like the notoriety so I'll keep her identity a secret. Only some former IBM'rs and those around the marina may know who surprised us with this. So we framed it up and will find a safe place aboard freedom for it.

Small Craft Advisories = no movement

We're stuck here for what looks like 2 more nights. So today we will walk into Deltaville and see about some shopping and those cosmopolitan type things.

Windmill Point Va. (Deltaville)

Out with the tide this morning and we ran across the Potomac with a light beam sea. It was easy enough but when we came around Smith Pt. we had 3 foot chop. We have no idea how this formed since the wind was out of the west and we felt it coming at us from the South. To ease the ride we bumped it up to around 11.5 knots and things smoothed out substantially.
Approaching Windmill Pt. things laid down and we had a smooth ride in to Norview Marina.
We'll sit out the ensuing foul weather here and start up again on Friday morning. Hopefully this is the last large water we'll see for a bit since we are headed for the Dismal Swamp Canal once we clear Norfolk Va..
By the way, it seems that the same group of 4 pelicans is still along for the ride with us.

Updated kmz file.

Point Lookout Md.

It was a great day to travel on the Cheasapeake. The waves were a foot or less so we could run slow for the sake of economy. I think we averaged something like 9 knots over 56 nm.. Going past Annapolis' channel we saw the USS Cole anchored. She looked fine and fit for duty! Moving south later on she caught up with us and I have to admit her radar profile was less than some of the motor yachts that blew by us. They were all bragging about how they were only burning 80 gallons an hour to make 14 knots.
And then we got a real treat. I had no idea that pelicans came this far north but a gang of them were always around all the way into the Potomac. They'd dive into the water, come up and shake their heads and move on. Since we saw them for quite a while it would seem we could assume they were moving south like us.
Smart.
So all along the way we have been looking at options for pulling in for the night. We planned on this spot all along, but with the weather being good I was thinking we should move the goal a bit further south to take advantage of the situation. So I made my case a few times and as some she works with may know she held her position. I had all the times plotted out and the case made but it was to no avail. Her mind was made up.
After all was said and done for boating today, you know, we're all tied up and the "safe arrival cocktail" has been broken out, I say, "Yeah, that was enough of a trip for me today".
She beat me. Don't let the pose in front of the flowers fool you. She went bipolar because this is how everyone tried to wear her down at work (multiple attempts for change until someone relents) and 30 years was unloaded on me.

Ok,

It wasn't that bad. I have a 100 pounds on her and a good reach.

Southbound file updated as well.

Updated photo bucket as well. Use sort by alphanum (name) ->

http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh40/danno53/Southbound/

Starting up again

When we pulled into Herrington Hrbr, the wind held us off the dock. I had to teach the dock hand how to manage the lines so he did not get pulled into the water. He seems to be about 17 years old and at that age I guess he thought that he could hold us against the dock even though we were broadside to about 25 knots of wind.
After a half an hour I had Freedom to the point we could actually get on and off the boat in spite of the wind pushing her out. I had to pull her in for Deb, but we could do it.
It looks like we get a one day shot to move on before the wind picks up again. We got a signal last night when Freedom laid onto the dock for the first time in two days. So we are heading south to the Potomac.

Sorry to hear everyone up North is getting ready to haul out and we wish we were ALL heading South. Hopefully everyone comes out ok, and does not see a clean spot on their hull like we did when we hauled for the props. Actually it was more than a clean spot. It was the only spot where there was no paint on the hull..

South Herrington Marina (Holland Pt. Md.)

While we had to slog it out with a beam sea initially, we found ourselves in a full on following 4-5 foot sea when we went under the William P. Lane Jr. bridges. What was initially 2-3 cranked up when the geography pinched in for the bridges since the wind was out of the North.
That made things interesting. When the boat velocity kicked up 30% for a large wave, it was not like it went unnoticed. I'll put it this way. We started at 9:30 and it was brisk out. But one hour into the trip I had Deb yank my sweat shirt off since I was sweating keeping the bow into the game. Don't forget, there's no power steering on Freedom and she has a keel that loves to hook up with a following see if it gets away from you. There were a couple of times when we jumped from 10 knots to just about 14k. It's ok when you plan on it and goose the throttles. It's another thing when you slide down a wave with help from behind!
Pulling into the Herrington Harbor South Marina made it all worth while. It's a class place and a great setting to sit out the weather. With the BoatUS discount it's not bad from a dollar point of view.
So far we have about 350 miles under the belt and we figure we have about 1500 altogether. We'll sit it out here until it's back down below 2-3 out there.

Rock Hall Md.

Down to Rock Hall Md. ok. Dock and dine for a slip at Waterman's. Since the price for the dock is cheap, there will be no complaints! The ride down was good enough with only some mild slop.
But the weather has taken a turn for the worse so we are only going as far as So. Herrington today. Pushing it beyond that is going to take us beyond the comfort level since it's looking like 4-6 down there. We can handle 2-3 following but not 4-6 following. If it was on the snout we'd probably go for it.
The Solomons are going to have to wait an extra day or two.

Cheasapeake City MD

We pulled in around 12:30 today. The trip up was smooth except for a beam sea until we were well into the bay. I thought Deb was going to paint the side of the boat but she held on or held it in as they say.
The prop work paid off and the boat ran smoothly, more so than before we left since they had not been tuned up in 8 years.
Tonite we are out to dinner with Deb's buddy from grade school. The town is interesting and a great stop as long as the draft is good for your boat. We churned a little by the town dock but there is a LARGE Flemming MY at the marina. It followed us in. Rumor has it staying to port on the way in is a good idea.

On the move again

Freedom has her props again and while we did not take it out to check the prop work out the props are definitely better than they were. So today at sunrise we pull out to catch the tide north up Delaware Bay into the C&D canal. There are two likely spots we'll call it a day at those being Delaware City or Cheasapeake City.
At this stop Deb gets to hook up with her friend from grade school. Hopefully we have a pleasant ride up the forcast is reasonable for the water at the mouth of the Bay. By the way we use a combination of the http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/ and NOAA broadcasts for that information.
The Nobeltec Software allows us to predict the best departure time given a route we intend to follow.

IBM Security Server Team Shopping Spree THANK YOU!!

So here we are in Utches Marina Cape May. I must admit the staff here are courteous, professional and expedient. In less than 1/2 an hour, they hauled Freedom, knocked off the props, and had her back in her slip so we could transport the props to a local prop shop. Yes I used the IBM discount to get a car for 30 bucks a day.
By the way we all sort of think that the props are the source of the vibration since one of the stbd blades was about 3/16 out from the others. All things considered this ain't bad.
Since there was a local West Marine store, we stopped in after dropping off the props for rework. We cannot thank the gang enough for the gift it came in really handy today and we still have more left! The RACF Security Server Team is without a doubt one of the best teams in IBM to be associated with!

Oh, by the way, Maura thanks for all the candy, but Debbie is getting fat. Since my brother is expecting pix of bikini clad babes, this is not a good thing.

So we'll hang in Cape May and enjoy the area for a couple of days.
We had dinner at the Harbor View Restaraunt and drowned a couple of sorrows......

But if I did not mention this, the transom lights I installed this Spring brought on quite a show at Avalon last night. All sorts of bait fish came to the transom and yes, bigger fish ate them.