American Wigeon Duck

Northern Pintail Duck

Roseate Spoonbill Feeding

Reddish Egret preening

Gator waiting for lunch

Spoonbills, Ibis, Snowy Egret

Our Christmas Tree on Geo Nova

Happy Holidays from us to you

Zach the Elf in California

Happy Holidays To All,

We continue to enjoy the sunny Florida weather however not quite as much today as we woke up to 38-degree temperature. It did warm up to 61 and in the sun it was wonderful.

We are still getting boat jobs done. It seems there is no end to the list. Thursday we had a refrigeration technician on the boat to help figure out why our ac driven shore assist unit was not performing properly. The problem seems to be resolved. The technician gave us lesson 101 in refrigeration repair so we learned a lot about our refrigeration unit and the trouble shooting process. We now have all the proper gages to trouble shoot if needed in the future. Today we replace a switch in a lighting fixture. It would seem to be a simple quick job but as with most boat jobs it was not. Try soldering a miniature switch to a very small wire closely attached to the wall. The job was done with a good dose of swearing.

We plan to head down to Boynton Beach to spend Christmas with Abe, after that New Years in Titusville. Soon after the New Year we will continue on our journey south and then to the Bahamas.

We wish everyone Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year!

We have decided to slow down and spend more time in Florida before heading across the stream to the Bahamas. Sometimes it’s hard for me to slow down. The last several weeks have been spent getting lots of boat jobs done. The bilge is cleaned; all the woodwork down below has been cleaned with Murphy’s Oil soap (this is when we wish we didn’t have so many louver doors), port windows cleaned, all light fixtures polished and the cabin ceiling washed (the mold creeps in when your not looking). The boat is mostly ship shape. Most of the shopping for paper and dry goods is done thanks to the friends that are in Titusville that have let us move in their home and use their car for errands. The Stainless Steel could be polished again we’ll save that for another week.

Don’t worry, its not all work. We have managed to get out and do some birding out on Merritt Island with the use of a friend’s car. The birding is just fantastic. It is different every time you go out there.

We decided to rent our own car so we could go to the GAM in Melbourne Florida at the Seven Seas Cruising Association. This event is a gathering for 3 days of cruising sailors to both socialize and learn new things. The highlight of the GAM was meeting up with friends from the past, Al and Fran who we met in Seal cove ME during hurricane Irene in 2011 and also from the not so distant past, Nina and John in the Chesapeake.

Since we decided to slow down we decided to rent a car to give us more mobility. The past several weeks our friends in Titusville have been very generous in lending their car to us when we needed it. Our new wheels have allowed us to make a trip up to Savannah to visit Mike and Carol. With some luck we may get in a round of golf if the weather holds up.

From here we will be back to the boat at which time our friends from ME should be at the marina. They got stuck in MA during hurricane Sandy. We can’t wait to swap stories.

Abe hasn’t made it up to Titusville. He came down with the flu one week then the next his day off was canceled. We are planning to be together for Christmas.

David and Diana would like you all to have a peaceful and joyous holiday with the ones you love. 

Black Belly Whistling Duck

Red Shouldered Hack 

Getting  Your Ducks in a Row Lesser Scop  Duck

Rosette Spoonbills and Great egret

American Widgeon Duck

Osprey

Manatee

Nov. 28^th

We hope that everyone had a wonderful time on Thanksgiving. We flew up to Islip NY on Long Island to spend time with David’s family. We arrived on Wed. in time to help prepare for the 24 that were at dinner on Thursday. Zach flew in arriving on Thursday morning. Abe had to be at the store at 6pm because they opened at 9pm. He called from FL wishing everyone a happy day. It was wonderful seeing everyone. 14 of us got together on Friday for another day of visiting and food. On Saturday we thought of going into the city but it got cold and the wind made it even colder. It felt like it was in the 30’s but it was in the 40’s. We all decided that it was a movie day so Debi, Angelo, Zach, David and I went to see the Lincoln movie a very well done drama.

David and I returned to FL Sunday morning and couldn’t wait to change back into our tee shirt and sandals! Dick and Andrea picked us up and back to Titusville to change.

The boat was fine. Our paint on the teak looked good. Glad we went away so it had time to harden.

Yesterday while David helped Dick make frames with clear plastic for the porch I went shopping and packaged up some food for the freezer. We have lots of little things to do before we head south in about ten days so having a car to borrow has been great.

Abe is planning to come up on Thursday to spend the night on the boat.

Debbie and Diana

Mike,Tom,Zach and David

Titusville City Marina

We have just passed the one-week mark on our stay here and are glad we made the decision to by pass Cumberland Island, as the weather would not have been conducive to a safe passage if we waited. That being said the weather has been most pleasant this past week.

This past Sunday we decided to do something a bit crazy however not too crazy if you are a NE Patriot fan. Being a football Sunday and the NE game not scheduled to be broadcast locally we decided to walk 4 miles to a local sports bar to catch the game. As it turned out our very good friends Dick and Andria just got back into town after a frigid vacation to New England. They call as we arrived at the bar so after ordering a beer and take out food they came and picked us up and we were able to go to their home to watch the remainder of the game.

It has been great catching up with Dick and Andria. The have been so good to us in so many ways including loaning us a car so that we could visit Abe in Boynton Beach. The car loan has come in handy by enabling us to make several trips to Merritt Island National Wildlife Sanctuary.  This is one of our favorite places in Florida. It is a natural stopping place for many species of migratory birds. In fact we saw three new to us birds there, the Reddish Egret, Black Bellied Plover and the Gull Billed Turn.

This time has also allowed us to get some boat chores done. The cabin top of the boat got waxed yesterday with the help of Dick. The extra person made the job go much quicker. Diana made up a new snubber line to replace the one that chaffed during Sandy. I installed 2 new reading lights. We dried out the dingy engine and it is now ready for service. The list gets shorter each day. 

Marina life is no bad. The city Marina hosted a wine tasting yesterday. The wine was ok but not spectacular. Many people will be surprised that we didn't purchase any of the wine.

Patriot Football walk

Frog on the window

Abe and Diana on Boynton Beach

Dick after a hard day of polishing

Black Crowned Night Heron

Night Heron Grooming

Little Blue Heron

SoraRail

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Purple Gallinule

Red Shouldered Hawk

reddish Egret

Dolphin breaks the surface along side us

All bundled up to keep warm on watch

Ponce Inlet at dawn

Cormorants on the ICW

Charleston to Titusville (again plan B)

We departed Charleston on Wednesday the 7^th at 8AM; the tide and current were favorable for this time. Our goal was Cumberland Island Georgia, a National seashore park with lots of history and nature viewing possible. This island is on the Georgia Florida border. We arrived at St Mary’s entrance at dawn after a fabulous sail (yea! finally no engine running) of about 24 hours and made our way in. As it turns out we only spent 3 hours anchored there. We were able to connect for a quick check of the weather that indicated that we would not likely have favorable conditions to get to Florida for about a week. This could severely hamper our plans to fly to NY to be with family for Thanksgiving.

Whey anchor and off to Titusville Florida via Ponce Inlet a 100-mile passage. We wanted to time this voyage so we would arrive at first light as this inlet is not to be dealt with in the darkness of night. As usual the great wind we had from Charleston all but died leaving the seaway hitting us on the beam (side) so we did noting but roll, thus an uncomfortable and mostly sleepless night. The good news is the inlet was benign and we made a speedy trip down the ICW to Titusville City Marina. We will be here about a month. This should give us plenty of time to get a bunch of boat jobs done. Yesterday we dried out the dingy engine (once the diver retrieved it from the bottom) that decided to go for a swim as we were trying to get off the fuel dock, along with straightening out the port running light. At least both running lights match now. Duck tape works wonders. The wind is great for sailing but not when it pins you to the dock when you are trying to get off of it.

Today we tackled the removal of a port window that leaked during Hurricane Sandy. With plastic over the port we’ll get the needed caulk to finish the job.

It’s not all work we had a nice walk to a local park for an arts festival and some live music. Finally wearing sandals, t-shirt and shorts. It was 73 today! After sailing all night with weather in the 30/40 this is a welcomed change!

Nov.6 th Charleston, SC Plan B!

We left Beaufort Saturday at 4:30 am with light NW winds so we had to motor sail. We had winds anywhere from 8-25 knots, which meant motor sailing. We got to the way point off the Frying Pan Shoals earlier than expected, time to choose where to go, arrive at Georgetown in the dark or make for Charleston and deal with winds on the nose for 5 hours but be further south.

On Saturday night we had a beautiful sun set. Watching the sunset over the ocean one always looks for the “green flash”, it was the second one I’ve ever seen, it was spectacular.

We arrived in Charleston and went to the City Marina for fuel and tied up at a dock by about 10 am Sunday. We spent the afternoon getting the boat cleaned up; David worked outside while I took care of the inside. With laundry loaded up we got that going and took showers. Finally with all of the work done it was time for dinner, take out pizza. We asked at the dock house and got a local place that delivered to the marina.  Needless to say it was great to have a meal and relax. We were pooped.

Yesterday we took the courtesy van into down town; they dropped us off right at the Slave Market. We took a carriage ride for an hour tour around the down town area.  We asked the driver if there was anywhere that had great beer and found out that if we wanted to walk about a ½ mile there was one. We were off! It was near Charleston City Collage so lots of local flavor. After a brew and some appetizers we were off to the Charleston Museum. What a wonderful place. My favorite was a naturalist display. We didn’t have enough time to see everything because we had dinner reservations. We walked to the restaurant, Poogans Porch and still need time to walk off lunch so we checked in and asked to move our time up. We walked down the street and discovered some wonderful galleries. In one the artist was working but took the time to explain his technique.  Back to the restaurant, which specialized in low country food, after a wonderful meal we called for the van and the trip back to the marina.

Today it’s raining so at 11:00 we will take the van trip to the shopping center that has a grocery store and West Marine!

We have checked weather and it looks like tomorrow will be the day to take off. After the North East storm blows by, as long as we don’t go more than about 20 miles off shore, we should have NW winds under 20kts. Our destination we hope this time is St. Mary’s Inlet at the Georgia Florida boarder.

Off watch

Oldest Church in Charleston

Typical Historic Home Charlseton

Buggy ride down Battery

Sunset photo did not capture green flash

We have arived

Diana Beading during Sandy

Our Anchorage during Sandy

Beaufort NC

Off off starboard Beaufort anchorage

Beaufort, NC Nov. 2

I everyone we had a very long day yesterday. We were up with the sunrise and slipped out of the finger pier making our way out of Pungo creek. We had to motor all of the way but a few time when we weren’t in a land cut we pulled out the headsail and it gave us sometimes a knot or more of speed so we were able to cover more ground in less time.

We stopped for fuel at a dock in a land cut 7 miles out from Beaufort. The tide was going out so right by the dock there was quite a current. It took a few tries but I finally got her to the dock without breaking anything on the boat and just a new crack on a board at the dock. Whew! We asked if we could take the time to hoist David up the mast to get the light, wind instrument and VHF antenna back in place. With only one more bridge to go under and it being dead low tide we knew we could get under with the equipment back in place. We made it under the bridge with dolphins all around and the sun just setting.

We anchored just inside the Beaufort inlet, made dinner and had a dark and stormy (for the non sailors it a drink with dark rum and ginger beer) then went over all of our weather information.

We are relaxing this morning. Tomorrow we will head out of the inlet and go off shore because we have a 24/36-hour window of fair winds to head south. We plan to make landfall in Georgetown SC. It looks like we will have a day to rest up and then another window to head out again. We will see when we get there what and where we will go next. 

Pongo creek Oct. 31

We hope everyone on the east coast has weathered the storm and come through unharmed. Our thoughts have been with all of our family and friends north of us where Sandy hit harder than here. It has been windy and cold here. We feel fortunate that we didn’t see more than gusts of wind 35/40K. The only thing we watched for was chaffing on the anchor snubber. We changed the rope and continued to ride out the storm.

We came back to the marina yesterday afternoon. We will go up to the office to get this off so you know we are safe. We have to get the full enclosure back up and a few other things to get the boat ready to head out again.

Tomorrow we will be heading to the Oriental, NC area, get fuel and make final preparations for going off shore. We hope to be in the Beaufort, NC area Friday morning. Once through the last bridge we will anchor and I’ll hoist David up the mast to get the wind, light and antenna back up and working then head out for a passage. We hope to make it to Ponce inlet in Florida. It is a 3-4; day and night sail. Abe wish you were with us again we’ll miss the help.

While sitting on the hook and as cold as it was I did up some casseroles so we will have easy meals to warm up on the crossing.

Our plans may change depending on the wind and how fast we can go. We will be staying about 10/20 miles off shore so if the need arrives we can stop at several harbors along the way.

Hampton Virginia to Belhaven  North Carolina

We departed Hampton timed to make it through several swing bridges that are on a tight schedule. Short day of travel followed by a long day. We have been watching Sandy closely the original prediction was for landfall in the Chesapeake so it seemed prudent to set off in the relative protection of the Inter Coastal Waterway. We have situated ourselves in a small town called Belhaven because it is situated as far west from the actual coast, with the hopes of blunting the effects of the storm.

We are near Belhaven in a creek on a dock at a small marina. Nothing special but we can stretch our legs and wait. We have good protection from the NE,N,NW,W,SW so as things clock around we should be fine. We stayed west so that we wouldn't be near the coast on the the ICW where there is no good place to have protection and we couldn't travel fast enough to get to Georgia or Florida to avoid Sandy.
If the storm stays east of here we may not see anything more than 20k with gusts to 35k so we feel we have found the safest place to ride out the storm.
We have to go to the office to have cell service or Internet. It is in and out out on the dock so once we have to hunker down you may not hear from us until after the storm remember no news is good news.
It sounds like the New England area is in for an awful mess. Everyone stay safe we will be thinking of you too.
Hopefully a week from now this will be just another story.
D&D

Our Private Anchorage on the Hampton River

Our Present Location near Belhaven NC

War Ships in Norfolk VA note patrol boat shadowing our movement

Norfolk in the Rear View Mirror

In the Lock at Great Bridge VA

Calm before the storm. Sunset Alligator River NC