Charleston, Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Lynn here today….

I know I said this before, but I am so impressed by Rod and his knowledge of the boat, the mechanics, and his ability to get things fixed. 

We had a bit of a  scare the last few days. When we returned to the boat after a wonderful visit with Cathy and Jeff in Palmetto Bluffs, we noticed some water but it had rained so we thought maybe we hadn’t closed the back curtain tight enough. Then when we got to Beaufort, Rod noticed that the storage bins in the bilge were full of water. The bilge was relatively dry so that didn’t make sense, but he cleaned out the containers and spent the afternoon cleaning all of his tools (the electric drill is history). 

We took off for Bohicket (yes, that’s a real place) and had a nice lunch. Guinness even got to bite an alligator (actually an alligator bit which was pretty good) and we thought we would have a relaxing afternoon. 

We were about to leave the next morning when Rod checked the bilge and the containers were full of water AGAIN! Something was leaking!  He assumed it was a hose and, for some strange reason, had purchased a roll of special tape that sticks wet or dry. He was able to repair the hose with the sticky tape. After some pumping out, a few swear words, and some work, we headed off carefully to Charleston. Luck has been with us…had he not purchased the tape, he couldn’t have repaired this. And since it was a calm day, we were planning to go “outside” which means we would have been in the ocean with the leak. 

We are now safely tied up in Charleston, and the unfortunate damage was the box of manuals that Rod keeps on board for all the systems. We took pictures of the wet paper and will try to find pdf’s online to replace them. 

So today it’s a trip to West Marine, laundry, groceries, replacing the pump and hose that leaked. He’s working on that now – he must think I can’t hear him talking while he’s working and saying some not very nice things to the tools and pump. Tonight a lovely dinner at the Península, which is one of the top ten rated restaurants in the US – it will be nice to enjoy an evening without the stress of the last few days. 

Rod has done a lot of things right on this trip, but this was amazing. Someone is watching out for us!

Saturday March 25, 2023

We left Jekyll Island after two cool but pleasant days, stopped at St. Simon’s Island (much busier than Jekyll Island), and then followed Georgia’s twisting creeks and rivers to Isle of Hope, an adorable little town between Savanah and Skidaway. Then on to Palmetto Bluff last Thursday.

Sunset at Jekyll Island

We are in Palmetto Bluff for three days, visiting with Jeff and Kathy. Jeff is the brother of Cathy Drennen, my late wife, and I am still vey close to my in-laws.

For those of you who followed my trip two years ago, you’ll remember the photo of their beautiful home on one of the lakes and waterways in this 20,000 acre development. Just 4,000 homes on 20,000 acres. Wow!

Kathy and Jeff’s house – great deck with wood burning fireplace on the water!

Yesterday, Jeff rented a Duffy electric boat, and we cruised through the waterways, admiring the beautiful homes. Kind of a busman’s holiday, I suppose. But it was a pleasure to let someone else steer for a while.

Lots of cute Duffy boats on the waterways here!

Lots of cute alligators too!

This one swam right past our boat.

….and here’s Wally, the LochNess monster of Palmetto Bluffs

Today is warm and breezy, with high cloud cover rolling in, a harbinger of a late-afternoon storm. Lynn is shooting Sporting Clays with Jeff and Kathy, while Guinness and I took a long walk. We had one scary moment where he insisted on taking a dip right next to the sign that said “Do Not Feed Alligators”.

This is always a welcome stop for me. A chance to completely relax and recover from the trip. As Lynn explained to Kathy: “Traveling by boat is more work than you might think.”

We leave tomorrow morning – a short hop to Beaufort, SC, then on to a marina on Bohicket Creek, just off the North Edisto River – almost where the river spills into the ocean. Like Jekyll Island, this is a new stop for me, and it looks charming. The name is certainly fun! From there, we are back in Charleston!

MONDAY, March 20, 2023

We’ve covered a lot of ground since our last post:

-Daytona Beach
-St. Augustine for St. Patty’s Day
-Fernandina Beach
-And now Jekyll Island

We talked a bit about Fernandina Beach on the way south. It’s a vibrant little town on Amelia Island with lots of pedestrian traffic and lots of great restaurants. We’ve never made it over to the ocean-facing side of the town; we’ve always been busy on the ICW-facing side.

Left Fernandina on an unseasonably cold, windy day – the wake on the boat was blowing up on the left and being held down on the right – here’s a shot out the back

Once you leave Fernandina Beach, you’re crossing the Georgia line, and our first stop in Georgia is Jekyll Island. Jekyll Island lies along the Georgia coast – in the heart of what are called “The Golden isles”. It became a playground for titans of industry and finance more than a century ago when some of the wealthiest American families, including Morgans, Vanderbilts, Astors, and Rockefellers, formed the Jekyll Island Club and built enormous winter “cottages”. Here’s a photo of the hotel that was the centerpiece of the club.

The state of Georgia bought the island in 1947 and set about limiting development while protecting the historic buildings and vast natural landscape.

Jekyll Island is a place to relax!

We toured the island by golf cart, and it is truly charming. I really like this place. Beaches, forests, marshes, bike paths, walking trails, some modern hotels, and perfectly-preserved historical edifices.

We stayed an extra day, so that we’d have more time to explore. We visited Driftwood Beach which is covered with beautiful skeletons of huge trees which fell on the beach and were left in place Here’s some shots:

These trees are huge – notice Guinness in the foreground

These continue for about a half mile on the beach!

Tomorrow, we move a little farther up the coast to St. Simon’s Island, another of the “Golden Isles”.

March 15, 2023

Since Guinness’ last post, we have slowly started our northbound return trip.
-Ft Lauderdale
-Palm Beach
-Cocoa Village

We are now at mile marker 900…still 900 miles south of Norfolk, and about 350 miles north of Key West.

But the weather has turned COLD. I know that it is the result of some meta weather patterns, and that warmer weather should return. But it makes us wonder why we ever left the Exumas!

Partly because the weather has turned so cold so quickly, we have decided to SLOW DOWN and take our time coming north. So we’re adding side trips to exotic places like:
-Jekyll Island
-Bohicket Creek
-Ocracoke

Last night, however, we were happy to be here: Cocoa is just south of Cape Canaveral, and we were able to watch SpaceX CRS-27 cargo resupply rocket launch. We’ve all seen them on TV, but it truly was inspiring to see that rocket light up the sky and streak upwards.

3…2…1…takeoff!

This is not a sunset, it was actually pitch dark until this!

We were able to track this for about five minutes. And then!

This was really cool to see but the iPhone didn’t pick it up well.

That’s 154 successful missions for the current version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket! Bravo Elon Musk!

We had hoped to visit the boardwalk at Cocoa Beach today, but it’s chilly and rainy, so we’re onboard, writing to all of you instead.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Daytona Beach, and then on Friday night we’re meeting friends in St Augustine to celebrate St Patrick’s Day!

TTFN

Friday, March 10, 2023

Guinness here today…

Today was a tough day for me … or should I say a bouncy day. 

Last night we were in a marina with two mini-me’s next door. Cute little doodles who wanted to play. I didn’t get to say goodbye this morning because we left really early. I just kept hearing Rod and Lynn say – we’re doing this. 

From where we were in Bimini to where we were going in Fort Lauderdale, we had to cross a stream. I play in streams all the time at home, but this one is a big deal – it even has its own name – THE GULF STREAM. Crossing it can also be a big deal if the wind and swells aren’t just right, but Rod and Lynn kept saying “ today looks like the only day for the next week that we can cross so we’re going. 

Here I am wishing this trip would be over. 

It was pretty bouncy and one time even Lynn got surprised when a big wave hit the boat. She usually just looks at me and smiles and says “it’s okay Guinness”. 

So I put my head down and tried to sleep. 

Now we are tied up in the marina again and I heard them say we’re back in the USA. I think that’s a good thing. I feel safe with these guys. I love them and I know they love me too.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

It turns out that last night was our last night in the Bahamas!

As you recall, we had to wait 5 days for our fuel filter to come in from Nassau, and the last two days of that wait were perfect travel weather. The forecast for the next week looked rough, so I was afraid we had missed our chance to move on. We liked Spanish Wells, but it was getting old.

So we emailed Chris Parker – our subscription weather service – and he suggested that – rather than going back through the Abacos, we just run due west to Chub Cay on Wednesday (today), then to Bimini on Thursday, and back to Ft Lauderdale on Friday.

He urged us to get into Chub by noon, as he was watching a line of squalls that would materialize in the afternoon. So we left at 6:30 and tied up here at 11:25. It was rougher than we like, but the boat (with its new fuel filter) ran well.

Here’s two shots of our last (moonlit) night in Spanish Wells.

Walking back from dinner.

View from the back of our boat

Tomorrow, we cannot leave early, because conditions are expected to improve as the day goes along. The plan is to leave around 10AM and roll into Bimini just before sunset. I’m not accustomed to traveling that late in the day, but that is our weather window.

It looks like it is again going to be rougher than we like, but we have to move in order to catch favorable weather for crossing the Gulf Stream on Friday. Friday is supposed to be “benign”! I sure hope that’s true.

TTFN

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Since we’re stuck here in Spanish Wells, waiting for a fuel filter, we decided to take a “tourist day” and visit the nearby town of Dunmore on Harbour Island. We had heard that it’s a cute little town, with charming houses, some good restaurants, and beautiful beaches on the ocean side.
So we:

• rode a golf cart to the ferry
• hopped a ferry to another part of Eleuthera – James Bay – took a cab to Three Islands Dock
• took a ferry to Dunmore on Harbour Island
• rented a golf cart to explore Harbour Island
• went to a gorgeous beach
• had lunch at Valentine’s (the Heartbeat of Harbor Island)
• caught a ferry back to Three Islands Dock
• took a cab for a tour of more Eleuthera sights and back to James Bay – rode the ferry back to Spanish Wells
• walked back to the boat

The highlights for me (Rod) were:

• The gorgeous 3-mile beach where Guinness learned to play frisbee and ran with the horses

• Talking to a crew member of a boat whose passengers’ mother has just moved from Hersheys Mill and kids had attended two schools in Malvern – another small world story on our trip!
• the bar scene at Valentine’s (it’s Spring Break, and there were 40 gorgeous college guys and gals knocking down beers). I don’t know how the bartender kept track.
  

The highlights for me ( Lynn) were:

• Seeing the Sapphire Blue Hole – an underwater cave with blue salt water fed by tunnels from the ocean. Braver souls than me would have jumped in.

• Seeing the glass bridge with the ocean crashing in one one side and the pale blue/green Carribean in the other side.
  

Our driver coming back from Dunmore was a great tour guide – he was so proud of his island. However, driving on a narrow road, on the left side, at 60 mph, might have been the most frightening part of this trip!

What a fun day!

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Hi everyone, we are back on the air, and back at Spanish Wells.

We had a wonderful visit to Staniel Cay. There was a certain peacefulness to our stay in Staniel, because we knew it was the turnaround point in our trip. The harbor itself is gorgeous – large and picturesque, with small islets poking their heads up here and there. And it is completely open to the west, so the sunsets were spectacular. They had no room for us at the docks, so we picked up a mooring ball (and had a ball!). We used the dinghy to run back and forth to the beach.

Almost a “ green flash”!

Staniel Cay is a hoppin’ little place, in part because of its airport. It is a popular place for boaters to pick up and drop off visitors and crew, so there are always beautiful yachts coming and going. They have a colorful bar, and DELICIOUS food.

The most popular attractions in the area are the Thunderbolt Grotto and the Swimming Pigs, and we managed to enjoy both:

The Thunderbolt Grotto is the site where they filmed the eponymous James Bond movie. Essentially, it is a mound-shaped island that is completely hollow inside. The entrance is typically underwater, but it reveals itself at low tide. You swim in wearing your mask and fins, and the view above and below the water is dramatically lit by holes in the rock overhead.

In contrast, the swimming pigs are just a hoot! They swim out to meet your boat in the hopes you’ve brought carrots, and you can play with them on the beach.

---

This guy came out to meet us only to be disappointed.

If you don’t bring food, you hold up your hands like a blackjack dealer and they turn around, We chose to stay on the boat but others dinghy ashore to go play with them.

On the “bad news” side, I had noticed a certain hesitancy in the engine as I throttled up, so I took a look at the Racor filter – the one that separates out any water in the fuel. It appeared to have captured quite a bit of water in it, so I emptied it and changed the filter element. Unfortunately, as it filled again from the fuel tank, the new fuel also looked pale and watery.

I called the marina and learned that diesel fuel in the Bahamas is not red (as it is in the States) but amber. It also has less aroma.

So I figured we were OK.

Yesterday – Wednesday – presented us with a perfect weather window, so we decided to make a long jump back to Eleuthera, retracing our path through the Exumas, all the way back to Spanish Wells. About a 7 hour trip – calm winds and flat seas. But the boat began acting up almost immediately: it would not let us go any faster than about 16mph, compared to our top speed of 20 mph. It felt like the engine wasn’t getting enough fuel.

Nevertheless, we decided to press on, knowing that – if we could reach Spanish Wells, we had a better chance of finding a skilled mechanic to assist. And we had to hold up in Spanish Wells for three days anyway, waiting for our next weather window.

Four hours later, our speed dropped to 14 mph. Two hours later, it dropped to 12 mph. But we made it!

We are now busy doing the wash, re-provisioning, and trying to line up a mechanic. We’ll keep you informed!