Washington Weekend

Our weekend in Washington was a great success!
We took in the science festival Saturday morning, then walked around downtown until we stumbled on Chinatown where we had a great lunch. Then off to the
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Sunday we headed downtown again, walked the Mall, saw the Whitehouse, Washington Monument, and WWII Memorial. Unfortunately, the reflecting pond has been emptied for a major overhaul, so we missed that.
Pictures will be posted next time we have wifi.

A Stop in Solomons

We made it to Solomons yesterday, arriving around 2. The predicted afternoon thunderstorms happily never arrived, so we had a peaceful day, catching up on some boat chores and planning our course of action for the next couple of days.

Several weeks ago, Greg had come upon some information about a science and book fair in Washington, DC. At that time we had no idea exactly where we would be, so it was impossible to make definite plans. Turns out our timing was impeccable! The drive from Solomons to Washington is only about an hour and a half, Enterprise has a fabulous weekend rental car rate, and we found a hotel just outside of downtown Washington. Our mission is a go!
We started this morning by lifting the anchor and putting Cee Jem on a dock (in 30 knot winds!) for a few days to keep her safe. The traffic on the way to pick up the car was a nightmare, so we were a bit later than expected leaving.
But now here I sit in the hotel while everyone takes their turn cleaning up in a 'real' shower. Then we're off for a late lunch. The girls are excited to come back a make use of the pool this afternoon.
Tomorrow we will take the Metro downtown to The Mall, check out what the Smithsonian is like, and see if we can find this science fair. Apparently Bill Nye will be there....we'll let you know ....

Northbound into Maryland...

Just passing Smith Point, where the Potomac River empties into the Chesapeake.
The Virginia/Maryland border runs along the south shore of the Potomac, so we are crossing the border into Maryland.
It's a grey and drizzly morning...we're headed for Solomons Island, hoping to be there early afternoon.
Here's our view from the cockpit:

Hello friends and family,
We are in Reedville . we are anchored in the same place we anchored last time.

When we were motoring down the dismal swamp we saw dragonflies, turtles and birds. The most interesting thing I think we saw was the cotton mouth snake , they can inflate themselves and they are highly poisonous.

In Hampton we saw Kate, the dock master, she is very nice.
We also saw an otter, the story is ,we were coming back from town and I said 'aww look there's an otter' and 3 seconds later I was saying ahhh!! there is an otter', we think the otter had rabies , we diddent stick around long because the otter was climbing out of the water and chasing us, Jessica said to another boater on our way by 'watch out the otter wants to chase you'.on our way back up for showers we saw his wet, muddy foot prints and then an area were he ate a fish or something.
In the Air and Space center I thought the Winogradsky column was cool, we are going to do it as a science project .
See you all real soon,
Madeline

Adventures

Hello friends and family,
We are at Reedville. At Hampton we went to the Verginia Air and Space Center. I liked the spot where you could make paper airplanes best. That was because I learned that if you made a perfect airplane you could get it going at just the right angle and just the right speed you could have a bit more gravity on the tail than on the nose that you can have the tail further down and the nose further up so the plane might go into one of the three holes that are on the wall. We also saw a Winogradsky Column, which is a self contained ecosystem. It is in a jar and the lid is on tight so only sun can get in. On the way back from the Verginia air and space musiem on the dock mom exclaimed " look, an otter". We all looked and there was an otter. He jumped into the water and we took some photos so we kept walking. I think that he thought we were playing a game so he tried to get out. He looked quite ill. So when he got out he started to chase us. So ( of course ) we ran and he ran.
Thats all the excitement for now,
Jessica.

New Galley Crew

Cee Jem has some new cooks working in her galley!
Madeline and Jessica have self-assumed many new responsibilites in our kitchen.
Madeline often makes pancakes for breakfast, and is also trying some new dinner dishes, including our local shrimp and rice meal from Georgetown.

Jessica in the Galley

Jessica has taken on the role of lunch cook, and we have had some wonderful meals. To date, she has made grilled cheese, salads, and pitas!

We particularly enjoy pizza pitas on warm days when it is too hot to turn the oven on...just put all your regular pizza ingredients on a freshly made pita and roll it up!

Best of all...they are also good dishwashers, and leave the galley clean!

The girls and their crazy frozen yogurt creations at The Fresh Berry in Charleston.

Walking to the shrimp dock in Georgetown, North Carolina.

Morning mist on Enterprise Creek, south of Myrtle Beach.

Cuddled up on a cool day.

Some Recent Pictures

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks of our adventure.


S'mores á la Cee Jem!
Made with graham crackers, Nutella, and mini marshmallows, flambéed with a butane torch.

Making a rope ladder to assist the Easter Bunny with getting onboard.

On the bow, enjoying a beautiful sunset. At this anchorage in Church Creek, South Carolina, the dolphins played around us for quite a while before the sun went down.

An Unexpected Dilemma

This morning we decided to head over to the fuel dock to fill with diesel and get some gas in our Jerry can. A simple enough task, one would think!!
The basin at River Dunes is amply deep, not at all busy, and the weather this morning was beautiful.
Our journey over was entirely uneventful, the trip back .... not so much.

One of my goals for this trip was to become more comfortable handling the boat. Indeed, I do my share of helming underway. I am pretty much exclusively at the wheel in and out of anchorages and mooring fields, as Greg does his thing on the bow. Docking however, is different. In an anchorage if you miss your intended target by a boat length or so, it generally doesn't matter too much. Not so at a dock.

Which brings us back to this morning, returning from the fuel dock:
I said to Greg 'why don't I try this?'.
In fact, it was the perfect opportunity. We were alone on a face dock, meaning it would be like trying to parallel park, but without any other cars .... You just pull up. Easy, right?

Well, it went like this...

Greg's only words of advice were to approach the dock nice and slow, which is exactly what I did. Right up to the edge of the dock. Jessica took the spring line, slipped it around the cleat on the dock, just like she was supposed to. Greg stepped off with the bow line, handed Jessica the stern line. Ta da!!
Except that the spring line was too long, and the dinghy engine secured on the stern railing was going to hit the piling on the dock.
So, Greg took the spring line off, a little puff of wind blew the boat away from the dock, and suddenly it all went awry. Jessica pulled with all her might, but 60 pounds of her was no match for 8 tons of boat with momentum...begrudgingly, she let go, as we instructed, and the lines fell into the water.
Now I am at the helm, looking at the three of them on the dock. I'm pretty good with math, and 4 of us total, minus three of them on the dock, makes 1 of me left on the boat!

I have practiced docking before, but always with Greg on board to handle the lines (and rush to my rescue, if it all goes wrong). This time it was just me, and I have to admit, once I gathered my thoughts, gathered and clipped the dock lines to the life lines at the widest part of the beam so they could be easily picked up as I approached the dock, it all went OK. I fully appreciate that it was absolutely ideal conditions, but should there be another time that I am required to put Cee Jem on a dock on my own, I will certainly approach it with more confidence than I would have before this morning. Meanwhile, I will continue practicing, hopefully with Greg at my side!

In River Dunes

Hello friends and family,
We are in River Dunes now, leaving tomorrow. We had a fun time here, I liked the swimming. Madeline and I pulled each other around with a piece of rope, it was quite fun. We went in to town today,
We saw the dragon. The dragon is in the middle of town and it is a town mascot.
I am missing you a lot,
Hope to see you soon,
Jessica

Long Day Amusement .... !

The girls are awesome on our long travel days ... Here's Jessica all 'decorated'.
They never cease to amuse us!

Down-Time in River Dunes

Monday night at Mile Hammock Bay, the flight training continued well after dark. Laying in our beds, we periodically heard the roar of engines at what seemed like a very short distance above the masts. On getting up to check, they were not actually as low as they sounded. A couple of hours later, all was quiet and we could get some rest.
We joked that Tuesday morning began as we imagine Murphy's might. First, we ran out of propane while trying to heat water for coffee and tea, and Greg had to negotiate the back deck, full of fenders and lines to change the tank. Once underway, the fire alarm went off a couple of times, owing to some grease Greg had used as part of a wet exhaust repair. No actual fire, just the oil heating up and causing the alarm to go off. Nice to know that it works well!
Throughout Tuesday, our luck improved! We caught great current and wind, and zoomed into Beaufort at a whopping 7 1/2 knots. Instead of stopping, as we had planned, in Town Creek at Beaufort, we instead continued north, with the now rising tide pushing us up the Newport River. A ten-mile jaunt up Adams Creek Canal, and by mid afternoon we were sailing on the Neuse River, past Oriental, NC, headed for River Dunes Marina. It was a stop we thoroughly enjoyed on our way south, and it was just as welcome a place to rest on our way north.
The girls swam in the pool, we all enjoyed the great steam showers, and used their courtesy car to drive into Oriental and get some groceries.

Mile Hammock Bay

A sunrise walk on Wrightsville Beach this morning started our day. The beach was beautiful, and many runners, walkers and treasure hunters armed with metal detectors kept us company. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our hunt for shark teeth.
We popped into Robert's Market, bought a few items including their 'World Famous Chicken Salad' (which was delicious!), and returned to Cee Jem to get underway.
Upon leaving the anchorage area and entering the main channel, we were immediately hard aground. A bit of running around the deck trying to adjust the angle of the keel, paired with a lot of power from our trusty engine, and we were soon off. Though we missed the bridge opening, which only happens on the top of the hour, we made good use of our wait time by stopping at a marina and filling with diesel.
The wind continued to build as the day continued, prompting us to conclude that it is always windy in this part of the world....we recalled it being equally windy in this area on our way south.
We figure we have seen the last of the native palm trees, only seeing them now planted in landscaped yards. The surroundings are beginning to look more like home. We even passed a raccoon swimming across the channel today.


We are anchored tonight at Mile Hammock Bay, part of the Camp Lejeune US Marine Base. We have been entertained since our arrival by three military aircraft doing circuits from a nearby field. From what we can see, they appear to be the V-22A Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. They have vertical take-off capabilities like a helicopter, and then tilt their propellers to enable them to have efficient forward motion like a regular airplane.

The guidebooks recommend an early northbound departure from here, to avoid being delayed by the closure of the ICW for ordinance practice. From what we can surmise, the ICW runs through a military training ground, and they often have live fire practice across the waterway. We will heed this advice, and be on our way brit and early!

It's Freezing!!

Literally!
This morning the temperature was 0 degrees Celsius. Colder than pretty much everywhere else....colder than anywhere in the Bahamas, colder than Charleston, colder than Norfolk, Virginia, colder than home in Mississauga!!

Luckily, it warmed up and by the time we pulled into Georgetown, South Carolina it was a beautiful 18 degrees, though still with a cool wind.
We had a great walk around town, enjoyed some ice cream, and then shopped for supplies for a local dinner. Shrimp from the docks with brown Carolina rice. Yummy!

Another short run tomorrow to a little bend in Enterprise Creek. Watch for our location update around 6. We won't leave here until just after noon so we can catch the flood tide up the river.

Frost Warning!!

Another 45 miles north, and tonight we have a frost warning!
Today is the first day northbound that we have stayed in long sleeves a jeans all day. It warmed up a bit by afternoon, but the north wind was still chilly.

So....instead of our original plan to cruise past Georgetown, SC tomorrow, we are instead going to stop and anchor for the night there.
We are looking forward to warmer temperatures as the weather is supposed to return to seasonally moderate temperatures over the weekend.

Bye, bye Charleston.

We left Charleston headed for an anchorage tonight. Themis, the mega yacht was still at Charleston. Themis even has a video camera. We went to the Knit, Jestine's
kitchen, Andoline's pizza and walked the market at Charleston. At the market there were mageladon teeth that cost 100$. Mageladon are huge sharks that used to live 300 million years ago. Dad, Madeline and I are going to look for their teeth in North Carolina. Did you know that more people get hurt with toilets than sharks? Five days ago we saw a alligator at the side of the river that we were motoring in. Did you know that great white sharks always get more teeth when they lose their old ones? That's pretty cool.
Talk to you soon,
Jessica

Memories of Charleston

Hello friends and family,
We are anchored in Minim Creek. Most marinas we have been to have dolphins, and there were a couple of anchorages that had them. In Charleston we went to Andolini's Pizza and Jestine's Kitchen. They were both very yummy! The Easter Bunny came to our boat on Easter. We left him/her carrots and pink lemonade. We also made a swim ladder from string (we are pretty sure he used it). And we used little knit bags for Easter baskets. The night we went out for dinner at Andolini's Pizza Jessica and I used some of our Christmas money to get some frozen yogurt from the Fresh Berry. You could choose a flavor of frozen yogurt, and you could choose from about 30 toppings.
I'll write more later,
Madeline

Back on Solid Ground in Charleston

Six days after leaving Fernandina Beach, we came ashore yesterday in Charleston. Our anchor was the only bit of our boat that touched land in Georgia, OK, the anchor and the bottom of our keel......

Wednesday was another day full of adventure. We had a leisurely morning, waiting for 11, so we could be on our way with the help of the tide. Motoring down Frederica River we dodged crab pots on our way out of the anchorage. At 12:30, we set the hook again at the south end of the Little Mud River waiting for a rising tide before proceeding. This is an area of the ICW that is known for severe shoaling. Luckily with the tides around here, time allows you to pass over what is shallow water at low tide. We waited until just the turn of the tide and carried on. Half hour later we were aground....and sure enough, a short time later we were off the bottom and could carry on.
Further up the river we passed an alligator sunning on the mud bank. Dolphins, egrets, herons and the occasional jumping fish kept us company along the way. Around 3, John on 'Vulcan' caught up to us. We first met John in Beaufort, SC on our way south in the fall. Then we ran into him again in Hope Town in the Bahamas. John is from Cobourg, traveling solo on this trip. He has covered several thousand miles in a sailboat, and a few years ago bought Vulcan, a beautiful 36' power cruiser. We continued to travel together the rest of Wednesday afternoon and anchored together in the Wahoo River that night.

By the time we woke up on Thursday, John was gone. He was headed to Hilton Head, an 80-mile trip that we couldn't make in one day. We got ourselves underway shortly before 9. By 10 we realized that we would be against current most of the day, and seeing the beautiful weather, decided to again hop out to the ocean. We sailed out St. Catherine's sound with the ebb tide pushing us along, seemed to pick up the edge of the gulf stream as we sailed northbound, and then were pushed back up Calibogue Sound (which borders Hilton Head Island) with the flood tide 5 hours later. On our way back in we radioed Vulcan to see where he was. We had done so well, that we had passed him! Our trip into the ocean allowed us to cover 90 miles of the twisty ICW in one day. Bryan Creek was our planned anchorage, but after checking it out, we found it fairly unprotected from the building wind off the ocean. Another 5 miles along we stopped for the night in Skull Creek.

Friday the weather was ugly..windy, at times rainy, and generally miserable. Unanimously we decided to stay put for the day, and not venture out across Port Royal Sound until things calmed down. We read, played games, planned our next few passages and generally had a good time just hanging out together.

At first light on Saturday we were northbound again. Port Royal Sound was nice and calm, though filled with debris. The full moon always causes exceptionally high tides (10.3 feet on Saturday) and combined with strong winds, the water level is raised further. At this time of year the high water picks up last years dead grasses from the salt flats and carries them down river. We did our best to dodge the biggest clumps, but couldn't miss them all. We sailed past Port Royal and Beaufort, and made good enough progress that we could attempt the notoriously shallow cuts between a couple of rivers in the area. With only inches below our keel, we slowly made our way through these areas and breathed a sigh of relief on the other side. Once past these cuts we decided to anchor for a couple of hours to let the worst of the opposing tide pass before continuing. Once it had settled a bit, we carried on and motored another 3 hours before anchoring again, this time for the night.

Sunday morning we had only a few hours to go before reaching Charleston. Good thing, because we had a surprise visitor in the night .... The Easter Bunny! Indeed this hoppy fellow made it to our boat and hid chocolate eggs in many ingenious places. We think most of them have been found, and luckily none were left in the engine room, so no fear of any melting chocolate! A relaxing trip up the Stono River, through Elliot Cut and we were in the Ashley River, which runs along the west side of the peninsula on which the city of Charleston was developed.

Charleston is a beautiful city, filled with old southern houses that look like they should have ladies sipping iced tea on their porches. The gardens are spectacular and you can often smell the Jasmine, which are in full bloom right now, before you see it. Many houses are adorned with wrought iron gates and sturdy wooden doors. We will enjoy a few days here wandering around, soaking up the southern atmosphere and eating low country cooking.

Sharks and Bites ( not from the sharks ).

Hello friends and family,
We are back on the ICW.
Last night we anchored at a place that had lots of no-seems and deer flies.
This morning we did a presentation, mine was on sharks. My favorite shark is the Great white shark, not because it eats us, because it keeps the population of fish and other small sea animals down.
Your writer,
Jessica.

Were about a quarter the way home!

Hello friends and family.
Happy Easter!
We are In Georgia, and mommy says that we are about a quarter the way home!
Yesterday we chose to go on the ocean, it was dead flat and at first you would of thought that we were on a pond.
Last night we were anchored in Frederica river and there were lots of no-see'ems and black flys.
We have seen lots of dolphins and sea turtles and in Titusville we saw a lot of manatee.
I am enjoying our trip wile were on it but really want to get back home to see my friends.
From: Madeline

First Night in Georgia

On our way south in the fall, we thought those we met who were headed off shore were crazy ... why would anyone leave the protected inside route and subject themselves to the scary North Atlantic Ocean???
"Real" sailors, as we thought of them, would actually spend an extra night anchored near an inlet, waiting for the right weather so they could head out of the nice, benign ICW and subject themselves to the wrath of mother nature.

Today though, with the benefit of a few more ocean experiences, we have a better appreciation for off-shore sailing. Today, we didn't have to fight current, the wind was light but steady, the sea was beautifully calm. Two other sailboats, crisp white sails bright against the blue sea and sky kept us company. There were a few shrimp boats on the far horizon. Beyond that, we spent the day in the company of hundreds of cannonball jellyfish, dozens of dolphins, and some of the biggest sea birds I have ever seen.
As we approached our inbound inlet, the swell began to build, and we could see the thunderheads building on shore. Our time was up. We happily headed inbound, thanked the ocean for the day, and motored a few more miles up the ICW to a secluded anchorage on the Frederica River. The sun was hot, and the flies were relentless so we ducked into the protection of our cabin and enjoyed a great family evening.

Tomorrow we will continue up the ICW. But in the future, knowing that the ocean is not meant to be feared, just respected, we would consider another outside passage. Maybe we're becoming "real" sailors after all!

Leaving Florida Behind

Sunday we strolled around St. Augustine, taking in the grounds of the fort and the lighthouse. Lunch was enjoyed on the second-level patio of a restaurant overlooking the water where we were able to watch the procession down the main street of the officials headed for the 'Blessing of the Fleet' at the yacht club.

Monday we departed early, and motored north headed for Fernandina Beach. Neither current or wind was in our favour. It was frustrating to be slowed to a meager 3.5 knots as the huge north Florida tides poured past us. The wind, when it blew with any strength was always against us as well. An additional delay was running hard aground, in the middle of the channel. We tried putting sails up, taking them down; using engine power in forward, and reverse; and all positioning ourselves on one side of the boat or the other in hopes of leaning it sufficiently to free the keel from the muddy bottom. In the end, the rising tide floated us off and we were on our way again about 30 minutes later.
We were all glad to set foot on shore once we arrived after a 12-hour day. We walked around Fernandina with my folks, hoping to find something suitable for dinner. Spring Break must be this week for someone nearby, as the shortest wait time we could find for a table for 6 was about an hour. We opted instead to hop in the car and found a spot away from the downtown hubbub.

After a nice week-long visit with my parents, we bid them farewell last night. Georgia, with it's winding creeks and desolate anchorages reachable only by water, was not going to be conducive to continuing to meet up with them after our day's travels.

The plan for today was to delay our departure until late morning when we would have a more favourable tide. We hoped our timing would allow us to catch the ebb and then flood in and out of St. Augustine inlet. On checking the weather this morning, we decided that it was a perfect day to head off shore. A quick trip to shore to check-out, and we were on our way. The tide was certainly in our favour, as the current pushed us out the inlet at a whopping 8.3 knots. Past the rocky jetty, we turned north into the ocean. Currently we are off the coast of Georgia, sailing on a peacefully flat Atlantic Ocean, with a beautiful light wind off our starboard beam!!

A Stormy Day

Another early start on Saturday had us through our first bridge at 7:30. We were joined by 'Charisma', another ketch that had been anchored beside us the previous night. We chatted a bit with them on the radio along the way and confirmed our suspicions that we had first run into them in Georgetown, Bahamas, and that the captain, Bill, was one of the morning cruisers net radio hosts. Bill said they were also heading for St. Augustine that night, hoping to get there before the thunderstorms rolled in that afternoon. We had checked the weather only briefly, and saw the forecast of 30% chance of rain, which is pretty standard for Florida.

As we travelled along, we gathered more sailboats, all traveling at about the same speed as we were. In all, 5 boats made a little northbound parade, sometimes spreading out a bit, depending on engine RPM, and who had a sail up. Though we seemed to regroup again at bridges, as the bridge masters would make the lead boats slow down and wait for the stragglers so they would only have to stop land traffic for one bridge opening.

Shortly after noon we could see the dark clouds forming in the western sky. As they approached around 1, the group of boats had again split up on account of no bridges for a long stretch of the ICW. As we neared the Crescent Beach bridge, we were the stragglers who were left behind as the other boats sped up to make the opening together. This turned out to be a stroke of good luck on our part. Just less than a mile from the bridge, Greg decided that we had better anchor to wait out the nasty-looking front that was quickly approaching. He radioed the bridge master and asked if there was any deep water south of the bridge that would be appropriate for us to drop the hook in while we waited out the weather. He kindly told us a spot between two channel markers that would keep us out of the way of other traffic. We sped up in an attempt to get to the intended spot before the wind really picked up, Greg went to the bow to ready the anchor. The wind speed steadily climbed, and Greg directed me from the bow, though we were having trouble making headway. Just as the rain started, the bridge master radioed that the wind at the bridge was gusting 30 knots, warning us that we would very soon be in those conditions too. Before I had a chance to yell to Greg, the wall of wind hit us, and even without any sails up, we were pushed sideways, as if a gust of wind had hit us with sails up. We were no longer in a position to be able to anchor. Our only reasonable choice was to turn around and run with the weather. This is where we were lucky we had not made it through the bridge with the others. They did not have the luxury of turning around, they would have quickly come back upon the bridge spanning the waterway. I began the turn back toward the canal, but the wind was preventing me from having the power to turn the boat. The deep water in this part of the ICW is only about 125 feet wide, or about 3 boat-lengths. Not a lot of room under the best conditions, and without the power to keep the boat turning, I was quickly running out of time before we met with the docks on the east side. From the bow, Greg yelled to me 'you need more power!'. This was absolutely counter-intuitive to what I thought would solve the problem. But, it worked, and our good ol' Perkins did the job and delivered the thrust we needed to get turned around!

For the next half hour, we endured pouring rain, luckily from the protection of our full enclosure. At times visibility was severely compromised, and the wind howled around us. I watched the plotter and depth sounder, while Greg stuck his head out the side window and steered point to point between the channel markers. We made use of some wider spots in the channel to turn around and orbit once the wind had calmed.
By 2 o'clock, all that remained of the storm was a light rain. We headed north, and requested a bridge opening, which we got after a short delay, as the sustained wind speed must have dropped for a specified time before they can open the bridge. We then passed through the Crescent Beach bridge, thanking the bridge master for his help.

After arriving in St. Augustine a couple of hours later, we decided it was safe to head for shore, hoping to make it before the rain started again. We did make it, and managed to check in at the office (hearing that their anemometer had seen wind gusts of up to 60 knots when the front passed through!) and get to dinner with my parents who had driven up the coast to meet us again.
We watched the pouring rain all through dinner, and when a break in the downpour appeared, headed to the bookstore next door. There we browsed the selection, taking in the vast choice available (still sometimes a shock from the meager availability in the Bahamas). Greg picked up a copy of SAIL magazine, and having submitted an article to them about lionfish in the winter, was pleasantly surprised to see it published in the current issue!
Another pause in the rain allowed us to dash back to the car, and we were dropped off at the marina where we grabbed showers and then headed back to the boat.