A wild night at Isle of Hope.

Our last post was at the Isle of Hope shortly after arriving. The day got more exciting as it went on. We had the crews from Little Wing and Mistress over for cocktail hour so the could enjoy the rainstorm in the comfort of our enclosure. There had been a tornado watch on all afternoon and just before we sat down, I checked the weather radar on the Accuweather site. The storms seemed to be tracking to the west of us probably pushed inland be the sea breeze. About 45 minutes into our party the local fire siren went off and we began discussing the best place to be during a tornado. Some were inclined to be inside their boat and some thought the concrete block laundry and shower building would be the best place. Anyhow after a very few minutes we reconvened with wine bottles in the shower building. No tornado in view but lots of rain and all the boats got deck leak tests big time.

Carol and I were getting ready to head for the bunks around 9:15 and we saw a very bright pair of lights which I thought were car head lights and Carol thought was a boat. They swept through the boat and then went away. Our next sensation was the sound of a very powerful diesel engine followed within seconds by the sound of fiberglass being crushed. It took a few minutes for us to get on deck just in time to see lights from the tug Miss Sarah out of Jacksonville Fla and it's barge pulling away from the marina and heading back out into the channel. In it's wake lay a badly crushed Lagoon catamaran Sabbatical which was tied to the outside floating dock. The crew of Sabbatical was unable to reach the tug by radio but we did learn the boat name and hailing port as he called for a bridge opening up stream. The story we heard the next morning is that the Coast Guard did board the tug that night and the captain claimed he didn't know he hit anything. Supposedly he was tested for controlled substances.

We are now to days north of the Isle of Hope in Dataw Island South Carolina. Tomorrow is Charleston for a couple of days.

Georgia on my mind

We are in Isle of Hope Georgia near Savannah. We have been blessed with 5 days of south winds. Amazingly it has not been particularly warm but the winds have pushed us along nicely and we have been sailing or motor sailing most of the time.

Monday night we spent at the Palm Coast Marina. The community of Palm Coast is a little like Fairfield Harbour with some nice waterfront homes and apparently some problems - the marina is a little long in the tooth, there is a huge and largely defunct shopping center and we saw signs proclaiming that the golf course was reopening soon.

Tuesday we sailed right by St Augustine since we had visited on our way south and anchored in a creek a little north of the city. Wednesday was a little uneventful as we motor sailed almost up to Ferinando Beach Fla and anchored in the same quiet creek we visited on our way down.

Wednesday was an exciting day! We started bright and early crossing the Cumberland Sound inlet and heading north on the sound past the big naval submarine base. As we crossed the lower sound we noticed a submarine headed in and being attended by two large tender boats. Well the submarine along with a full complement of Coast Guard escort boats and the tenders caught up with us as we approached the base and the Coast Guard asked us to actually navigate outside the channel as the sub passed. I wasn't all that comfortable being on the wrong side of the nuns but we never saw less than 25 ft of water. At that point the sub was not going that much faster than us and took for ever to pass. As we continued north toward the Georgia/Florida line, we approached the dreaded St Andrew Sound which can put up a nasty rolling sea when the wind and tide are opposed. Fortunately for us the winds were south east and the tide was ebbing. So we had some mild rollers as we sailed out toward the inlet at an amazing speed of 9 Knots. Turning back to head into the Jekyll Creek we were opposed to the current and had a stiff tail wind. So it was a big following sea, the boat was surfing off waves and making all of about 4 knots of speed over the bottom. We made a 3o minute pit stop at the Jekyll Island marina for fuel, water, garbage drop, and a pumpout. We then spent a quiet night in Federico Creek which is an off shoot to the ICW.

Thursday and Friday morning brought more sound crossing with the same current and wind situations as we found in St. Andrew sound. However the effects were less dramatic. Today we pulled into a nice marina at Isle of Hope to wait out some severe weather and will use their courtesy car this afternoon to visit Walmart and other stores in the area

New Smyrna Beach

We are here in this neat coastal North Florida town just south of Daytona. We have been weathered in for 4 days of heavy north and northeast winds. But we are not complaining! We found a good restaurant, great farmers market on Saturday, and a big party last night celebrating St Patrick's Day. Quite a feed and a great time to socialize with fellow travelers and residents of the NSB City Marina. This marina was wiped out by the hurricanes of '94 and is now a sparkling new facility.

Sailflow.com promises a week of east and southeast winds. We aim to make time northward in a big way including some offshore sailing off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina.

New Smyrna Beach has an interesting history dating back to colonial times when people from the Mediterranean were recruited to build a community. The settlement failed and most of the immigrant's ended up in St Augustine. But the Mediterranean heritage is still very much in evidence here.

We met two boats from Nova Scotia and have enjoyed hearing their sailing experiences.

Titusville Again

We're anchored outside the municipal marina in Titusville. Wind is out of the east around 15 and it is a little bumpy but it's supposed to die down tonight.

We had a miserable motor slog into a stiff north wind yesterday between Vero Beach and Dragon Pt. Dragon Pt (Melbourne area) proved to be a quiet anchorage and we slept well. Yesterday before the wind picked up Carol was driving under the Wabasso Bridge she saw her first Manatee. She has been looking for one for the last four months so it was a big sighting for her.

Today we had an east wind around 15 and gusting higher. It offered a terrific sail and great diesel mileage. Tomorrow we head into a marina in New Smyrna Beach. A major cold front is supposed to pass through so we will probably spend the weekend there.

Vero Beach Again

We're back in the terrific Vero Beach mooring field again. It feels like summer is on the way here. Mid 80's during the day and mid 60's at night.

Yesterday afternoon a strong sea breeze developed and I went body surfing at the beach. At one point heading out I found my trunks down around my knees - luckily I saved them and no cameras around. We were also treated to another shuttle launch just after sunset last night. I wasn't expecting to see much since it was not totally dark. But I was wrong! We got a good view from deck and since the sun was just over the horizon the shuttle and smoke plume changed color and brightness dramatically as it gained altitude. Thanks to Joan and Jack Morris on Razz Ma Tazz for the photo.

We leave to start our trek home tomorrow.

Crossing Okeechobee

Today's crossing of Florida's big inland lake was a pretty tame motor job. The lake is infamous for a nasty chop given its shallow depth and large dimensions, but there was little wind today and the ride was smooth if a bit boring. Yesterday we went all of 12 miles from Moore Haven to a spot in the waterway just before entering the lake. We stayed free there tied off to dolphins provided by the Army Corps of Engineers to moor vessels waiting for lock passage. The ride down to this place from Moore Haven featured the best wildlife display of the entire trip. Yes those are alligators in the pictures and we say dozens of them in the 12 mile passage.

Tonight we are are at the Indian Town Marina. Tomorrow we will be anchored out in Manatee

Pocket and hopefully Carol will actually see a Manatee. We'll be back in Vero Beach on Thursday as I may have mentioned before. It is actually hot here and we put up our screen enclosure. Maybe it will be up all the way north to NC. One can only hope.

Okeechobee Waterway

We made dockside at Ft Myers City Marina on Friday, the first tie up & plug in in a little over 60 days. Well the Traumerei was just a little salty after over 14o miles of exciting Gulf of Mexico sailing. So the first order of business was with the garden hose and a fresh water rinse down. After a couple of liberal doses of "Salt Away" the old girl really sparkled.

Last night (Saturday) we spent the night at the Franklin Lock - a combination Army Corps of Engineers campground and boat dock - pictured to the left. We enjoyed visiting with some of the RV'rs from all over the Midwest and really enjoyed the full facilities and an overnight rate of $12.

We're now tied up to the town dock at Moore Haven Florida, a little town on the cross state Okeechobee Waterway. It's a nice quiet spot next to the town hall and library. Tomorrow is a short day (12 Miles) to Cleuiston which is close by to Lake Okeechobee. We cross on Tuesday in what is promised to be a rare southwest wind - terrific for a northeast course. We will take a few days getting to Stuart on the East coast of Fla and head for a brief stay in Vero Beach to rendezvous with folks we met during the trip down and during the winter in the Keys.

Ft Myers Beach

We spent 4 nights in Marco Island's Smokehouse Bay. It wasn't a bad place to be but the 4 nights were dictated by some rather nasty weather. We took advantage of our stay by having some much needed sewing done on our cockpit enclosure. When we made the enclosure, we were planning on using it only occasionally. But it hasn't been off the boat since we left in October and the rip stop nylon top had just about disintegrated from sun exposure and some very high winds. We had a nice 35 mile sail in the Gulf of Mexico up to Ft. Myers beach where we picked up a mooring ball. The winds were out of the North East so we were close hulled the entire 35 miles and it was pretty cool until the wind died at the end of the trip.



This place has some very nice shower and laundry facilities. Carol and I took our first shower off the boat in over a month in a private and clean ceramic tile shower room. Its nice to have an unlimited supply of hot water once and a while