December 19 - 26 “PALM BEACHED”

Susan, Heidi & Barb on SWAN, Christmas Eve

Dec. 19 Before we left Vero Beach we used the laundry at the marina, walked to the shops to do last-minute Christmas shopping, talked to the cruisers who were hanging around. It’s a fine place, and hard to leave as they offer all the amenities along with the affordable mooring system. They raft boats on the moorings and you definitely meet more people that way, side-by-side, tied together with bow lines and stern lines. Our mooring neighbors had two cats!

Our weather for the first three days of this period has been wonderful. We enjoyed two nights on anchor, and days of traveling the now-straight ICW. We have seen a few manatees, several new (to us) bird species, a sea-turtle, and the human waterskier (along with jet skis and MANY fishing boats on the Sunday before Christmas in mid-coast Florida).

Dec. 22 The weather, which rules our lives, is promising to go very windy and that means we need to hunker down and make sure we are in a secure place. But first, we had a visitor today and for the second time in the last 5 days someone asked “Is Heidi there?”. Today was Barry Perkins from Mattapoisett; his brother was in my high school class and he is friends with other high school classmates so he and his wife Susan knew we were cruising behind them. (The first visitor was the owner of one of the Tayana 37s we saw in Vero Beach Marina and I had been emailing him for a couple of weeks but had never met him.) But back to the weather……we anchored in the north end of Lake Worth in North Palm Beach on Dec 21. Seems protected but after 24 hours our anchor dragged and we had to try several times to get it to set properly, a little more to the west of where we had been. Then to make doubly sure, we added another anchor off our bow and off to an angle to the first one. The wind kept up until the day after Christmas, so we spent 6 days in the area. For Christmas Eve we were in a marina there, and had a great boat party with Barry, Susan, Rich and Barb.

On Friday we got back to traveling the ICW south, and ended up in Delray Beach for the night. As far as our future plans go, we have put our trip to the Bahamas on hold, at least for a week or two. We can leave from further south in Florida and we can check out Fort Lauderdale and Biscayne Bay.

We got to talk with our children, Tammy, Justin and Pete--the only one who is AT home--on Christmas, and our parents (and some other family and friends). It wasn’t as good as a Christmas at home, but we knew we would miss some holidays by taking this trip. Hopefully the accumulated travel and adventures will make up for some of the things we miss by being away.

December 11 - 18 WARM!!!

We're in the Barge Canal at a marina, near Cape Canaveral; Riko came to see our boat and is our "care package" angel.



Dec.11 There were tornado warnings and a squall came through the St.Augustine anchorage in the morning, but the afternoon was nicer so we went ashore and checked out the city. We visited the San Sebastian Winery and took their tour. There is also a college here, Flaggler College, right in downtown and near the harbor, and it’s buildings are beautiful, and big, some from early in The 1900’s and some new, all in Spanish-style architecture. When we got back to our boat it had moved, and was tied to another boat! There are always surprises on this trip! Someone in the anchorage noticed that our boat was dragging it’s anchor and got aboard and stabilized the situation by tying us up to another boat (unoccupied). Those people (from Lubec, Maine) are heroes.

The extra low tides due to the full moon kept us from leaving the next day for about an hour (we were stuck in shallow water) but we did get out and traveled in warmer weather (60 degrees) to the Matanzas River. There is another National Park Service site here, a 1700s Spanish fort, and it is the site of a slaughter of French settlers (in a battle with Spaniards). The weather is gradually warming up and the next day we got to New Smyrna Beach where they have 2 free city docks. Almost adjacent to the docks is the main street and we happened on the monthly antique car event, where they close off the main street for about 6 blocks and line up the cars and trucks (about 200 of them). There was live music at one end and a disc jockey at the other playing old songs. If we planned it we would never make it but these things pop up and we are enjoying being randomly in the right place at the right time.

Dec.14 Now it is getting REALLY WARM and we are also going straighter than earlier on the ICW so we can make the miles fly by. Today we went through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, near the Kennedy NASA base, and it is a beautiful section of the waterway. There are supposed to be more bird species here than anywhere else in the southeast, and there are 1000 species of plants. We can see the mangroves along the edge of the narrow Haulover Canal. If the water was warmer there would be manatees here. The end of the day found us at the Titusville Marina, with one last adventure, when the shift lever for the boat got stuck in reverse as we left the pumpout dock to head for our slip. Ken quickly killed the engine and we got tied back to the dock and spent an hour fixing the problem -- Ken’s mechanic skills again come in handy!

We planned to get to Cape Canaveral the next day, where my brother Jim and his wife, Riko, live. Things went almost according to plans until we found out that the Crista McCauliffe Bridge that connects the Indian River (where we are) to the Banana River (where they are) is closed everyday from 3-6pm. We forgot to read the fine print. Jim and Riko were still able to pick us up and take us to dinner so all was not lost. This was a fine day and ended with a feast at a Japanese restaurant. The next morning Riko drove back to the marina we were at (near the bridge) and brought us a “care package” of 2 baskets of food and a newspaper.



Dec.16 We are really enjoying the Florida weather now. Starting today for the next few days the temperatures are in the 70s and the wind is light and there are few clouds. We are seeing more boats and cruisers now. We even saw a Duxbury boat this day, one Ken recognized as the owner of the boatyard we have kept RISING TIDE in the past few years. We hailed the captain on the radio and surprised him by announcing who we were. One more night of anchoring and 2 nights on a mooring in Vero Beach complete this chapter and we are loving the weather conditions and the chance to reconnect with cruisers again, some that we have known from earlier in our trip (good to see you, Addison and Pat!) and some new people, including two Tayana 37s (like ours) in Vero Beach.

December 2 - 10 Georgia and Northern Florida Provide the Best Wildlife So Far

Southern Shade, Beaufort SC

Palms at National Park Service site, Ft.George River, Florida (our boat in distance)

Dec.2
Beaufort, SC is a great town. We had a late morning wine-tasting, bought some wines, then had lunch at a river-side restaurant. Ken got an appointment with a chiropractor for later in the afternoon and I walked all through the streets, from one water-view to another, since Beaufort is a peninsula. There are also some great book stores here.

Our next stop was Hilton Head which is familiar to us. Amazing how much fun it is to know where you are going and what is coming around the next bend! We also got parts and charts sent to us in Hilton Head from a marine store back in New England. Hilton Head also has great bike trails and I got in two long rides there. After one night in a marina in Hilton Head we next anchored in Bull Creek, the first of four nights in remote creeks in Georgia. The wildlife in Georgia has been great. One night we watched an otter swim across the creek we were anchored in, and that same night I followed the creek in the dinghy and watched a raccoon walking along the edge of the creek. We have seen bald eagles on two occasions and several times have watched fishermen in small boats with either hand nets for shrimp or fishing lines for local fish. The dolphins continue to pop up several times a day and sometimes follow our boat, just a few feet away.

Dec. 8
After this stretch of the ICW (about 100 miles) in the “wilderness” we reached the Sea Islands -- St.Simons, Jekkyl, Cumberland -- and decided to sail outside for a day. Let’s just say it wasn’t my favorite day. We went out to the Atlantic at the South end of St. Simons and had sunny skies, wind (but directly behind us) and big swells. We saw one other boat, in the distance, and no wildlife at all. But we got through it and entered St.Mary’s Sound at Fernandina Beach, Florida, at about 4 pm. We loved the town of Fernandina Beach, a large town with many restaurants, and also many good quality shops and stops. Maybe it helped that the weather turned warm and balmy at this point (although the forecast is for another cold front to come through later this week). In Florida we continued to enjoy different and frequent wildlife. We have seen two flocks of white pelicans, which I understand are only winter visitors to Florida (summering in Canada and California). There are underwater creatures -- krill -- nibbling on our hull in this section of the Waterway, and the noise they make is fairly loud! It sounds like a moderate rain falling on the boat, except it is coming from under the boat. Luckily we were warned about this phenomenon by one of the guide books or we would have been very confused by the sound.

This morning we were in another quiet anchorage off the ICW, Fort George River, and happily the only unusual feature there was a dock with a National Park Service sign on it. I explored ashore while Ken checked the oil and worked his magic to keep our engine running well. The NPS site is the Kingsley Plantation, part of a bigger site that marks the earlier inhabitants, American Indians, Spanish, French, and English settlers. I read that the area also flew the Mexican flag at one point, and the flag of the Republic of Georgia and the Republic of Florida.

Today’s travels brought us to St. Augustine, just as the sun was setting. We are at an anchorage near the Spanish fort Castello de San Marcos, which was built from 1672 - 1756. We’re looking forward to seeing the city closer up tomorrow.

From the beginning of our trip in Cohasset to St. Augustine we have traveled about 1,375 miles.

We have been seeing fewer and fewer cruisers in this section of our trip. How are we handling the isolation from other human beings and from the technology/civilization that we are used to?

Ken: “We’re almost out of beer!” “I’m going to try calling GUST O’ WIND on the VHF one more time.”
Heidi: “I’m all set since I got to see a Park Service site that turned up randomly.” “We need to get to somewhere where we can send mail/buy Christmas gifts/send another blog episode”

Canadian Friends from the Waterway with Ken

November 27 to December 2
Thankful, but no Turkey this year!
Nov. 27
We realized when we looked at the charts that we weren’t having turkey today. There’s nowhere to stop except McClellanville, where we are now (we tried motoring into the harbor there but it was low tide and we almost hit bottom) and we don’t have an oven (we do, but have never used it, due to some problems with the controls). So we headed off along the canals/rivers of South Carolina, another cold and sunny day. We are still seeing dolphins every once and a while. We anchored at the end of the day in another marshy creek, Whiteside Cr. Two boats we are familiar with were behind us and also anchored there. We all got together for drinks. One couple is from England and one from Canada.
We ARE thankful for the opportunity to take the time to see the East Coast in this way, up-close-and-personal, and to meet such interesting new people. We are fortunate to have the time to do this. Some days it seems like a Disney ride, and a free one at that! (This does not count the cold, windy, rainy days…….)The following day proved to be much warmer -- yay! No long johns today! -- and we are quite close to Charleston. We end up finishing the ICW north of Charleston Harbor with a parade of boats going through a swing bridge that opens when you request it. In the parade was a sailboat being towed and the 3 boats from Whiteside Cr. and a power boat. We anchored near the City Marina (they call it the Megadock, and it is big). We used their dinghy dock and went ashore to explore. Rain was expected, but mostly held off. The side streets leading up to the downtown were peaceful and pretty and then we hit the main shopping streets in the city and they were packed. We had forgotten that it was the “big Christmas shopping day”. Ken ended the afternoon straining his back on the return trip to our boat in the dinghy.
Our first aid kit contained some good pain killers and Ken was feeling better in the morning. We wanted to stay longer in Charleston but the weather was threatening to be windy again, from a difficult direction for anchoring in that harbor, so we left fairly early in the day for the ICW again. We still had warm temperatures but it was cloudy, and rain plus the high winds were expected. Our stop that night was at Bohicket Village Marina, a side trip off the ICW, down the North Edisto River, almost to the inlet to the Atlantic. This was a resort and marina, with several restaurants, a gift shop, etc. We treated ourselves to a great dinner ashore and then did 3 loads of laundry!
Nov. 30
An Island Packet 44 was towed in to the marina the day before we arrived and the single-handed sailor aboard is a woman. We talked with her and Ken looked at her engine, since she wasn’t going to be able to get a mechanic until tomorrow at the earliest. We’re not sure any of the suggestions he made were of any help but chances are good we’ll see her again further down the “road”. The weather was bad this day, windy and rainy. There was a break and I got to bike the short distance to a newly-built “village shopping area” and pick up some groceries. We left the dock in mid-afternoon and made a short windy trip to Steamboat Creek, also off the North Edisto River. There are plantations and ruins of plantations in this area. They grew rice and cotton in their heyday.
We finished our first full month on the boat this week and now have started December, back to cold clear weather. The ICW has a lot of “cuts” in this area (short connections between rivers) and we also crossed a very large body of water, St.Helena Sound. We got almost to Beaufort, SC, but the swing bridge in the river there only opens twice a day. The anchorage just before the bridge, on Factory Creek, proved to be a quiet, safe anchorage. We put out 2 anchors, one extra one from the stern, and this was such a stable arrangement that we remained there for 2 nights. We were able to motor to Beaufort in our dinghy. There we said goodby to people on two boats who were sailing out of the ICW that day, taking the more direct ocean route to Florida. [We can connect with people we have met on other boats by talking with them on the VHF marine radio. If they are within range--20miles--we can contact them and we can also listen-in if they are talking with bridge tenders or additional boats to make plans. That’s how we found out that the two boats we were familiar with were planning an overnight ocean sail.]