River Dunes, North Carolina

Yesterday we traveled about 10 hours from  Swansboro to River Dunes. Our original plan had been to go to Whittaker Point Marina, where Dharma is from, and spend a night there before saying goodbye tomorrow. However, since Beryl has decided to sweep near us, we needed to find a very protected, fairly deep marina. 10 miles up the river was River Dunes. Chris and Courtney had stayed here twice before to hide from hurricanes, so we feel quite confident that we'll be safe here. The rain just started and is fairly heavy already. Perfect timing to put off my run!

This marina is beautiful. It is a housing development with a marina. The houses are very large and grounds very manicured. Unfortunately many many lots have not sold, which is why they take in transients such as ourselves. The club house is grand, full of antiques, with a restaurant in the top floor, library, TV room, pool table, games, downstairs. I think we'll find plenty to do today in the rain.

John and Chris just borrowed the marina's courteousy car to go and fetch Chris's car. Later we'll go to the grocery store for some supplies.

We are here with Dharma, Makana, and Chere just caught up with us yesterday. The kids ofcourse are having a great time. They've borrowed the marinas bikes, swam in the pool, and played wii in the clubhouse.

Our loose plan in to get to Tuckeho Anchorage and then Coinjock Marina by Friday.  From Coinjock its about 50 miles to Norfolk, VA, and the end of the ICW for us.

Drinks by the pool

Overshot Charleston

So we kept pushing past Charleston and made landfall in Georgetown.  We departed at 0400 and arrived at around 1000 the following day and dropped the hook at 1400 in Cow Creek off the Waccamaw River. Pretty uneventful passage.  We had little wind and 2-4' seas for most of the run, but did manage a glorious reach with no motor for about 3 hours at 7 knts.  That made it a great trip for me.  Fantastic to skip so much of the ICW.  We covered around 240 NM and chopped 8 days of ICW out of the trip.  Lex and I were pretty wiped out by the time we got the hook down.  We had a nap and then had some dinner with the gang on Dharma.  Sunrise offshore off South Carolina.

This area of South Carolina is very pretty.  There are lots of cypress and interesting grasses and flowers along the shores.  We did some exploring and discovered lots of turtles, a couple of catfish attached at the head swimming upside down (no kidding), and any number of additional creepy-crawleys.  It was something anchoring Zusammen in a tiny little creek surround by very lush forest.

We pushed on to Grand Dunes in the afternoon to hide out from the approaching Tropical Storm Beryl.  Looks like we'll be here one more night and then push North again.  I am looking forward to getting to Wrightsville Beach and hopefully catch some waves from this system.

Fun dinner on Makana last night with the gang. The kids got some swimming time in a pool we poached from a local hotel.  They are shameless, these kids....

Lex and Katie are off for a run and I'll do a few errands later today.  I believe we will head out tomorrow, but we'll have to see what our pal TS Beryl decides to do.

Fernadina Beach, bound for Charleston

So we're hitting the hay now and will try for Charleston, SC around 0400. I would like to stay out for a second night and get into NC, but we'll have to see how the convoy feels about things wednesday evening. Looks light a light wind run, but I prefer boring over spicy when it comes to offshore stuff. We had a long slog in the ICW today, touched bottom a few times, had to wait at a broken railroad bridge that was closed, enjoyed a few dolphin passengers and had a number of laughs on the radio with Dharma and Makana. Happy to be heading offshore again. I'll get a good sunrise pic and post it when we get in. Let's hope for some fish! It's been a while.

St. Augustine

We arrived in St. Augustine on Friday, and after securing a mooring went in for happy hour at a local pizza parlor. St. Augustine is a beautiful town, founded in 1565, with predominantly Spanish architecture. This is by far my favorite stop in Florida, and would love to come back here again. We stopped here on the way south, and met Makana here for the first time. There are several cobblestone streets, closed to traffic, with pretty boutiques, and restaurants. Courtney, Katie, and I went to a wine tasting yesterday which was great, with lots of laughs. The husbands kept all the kids at a field near the fort for bocce, golf, and kite flying. The park rangers came by and put a stop to the kite flying, as 2 string kites aren't allowed near the fort! Seemed a little random, but I suppose they can swoop down and crash pretty hard. This morning John and I dropped the kids off at Dharma and went to a bakery for breakfast (chocolate croissants, my favorite!). This afternoon the kids played miniature golf, while the parents all used computers in the marina lounge to pay bills, update blogs, and search for dream boats.

There's a storm coming, so we're staying put at this marina until it passes. Our plan right now is to head north on Tuesday, jumping out at the St. John inlet, and hopefully getting as far as Charleston or Beaufort.

Starboard view on Sunday

Tyler, Cole, and Ben playing LAX

Eliza, Hoku, and John in the on-deck fort the girls built

ICW sighting

More ICW friends

On the road again....

0640 departure from Titusville bound for Palm Coast.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless smartphone

About 1200 miles back to Padanaram!

We're off in the AM at 0630 to try to reach Titusville around Cape Canaveral. We had a killer dinner with our pals Corbett and Robin on Cookie Monster. We'll see them when we get to Atlantic Highlands again. Will be fun connecting Kinsella with some of our pals from the Bahamas that live near him and getting some surfing in around NJ. The plan wil be to run the ICW up to Fernadina and then run offshore to Charleston and Beafort. We'll then run inside to Norfolk and then outside to Atlantic Highlands, outside again to Block Island or Newport, then back to the NBYC! We need to get a quick haul and get some bottom paint on, it's pretty thin at this point. We may stay with uncle Bob for a couple of days and do the paint in RI. We need to buy a car or a truck when we get back in mid June. I'll have my motorcycle, but we'll need a car pretty quickly. If anyone knows someone selling a car, give me a call @617-872-1763.

The Passage back

We left Powell Cay on Friday morning at 11 a.m. with Dharma, Cookie Monster, and Makana, headed for Great Sale for a quick rest and dinner before the overnight. The sail to Great Sale was uneventful, long, but nothing compared to what was coming. We arrived in GS about 6:30, and made a couple of pizzas that we could snack on thru the night. We pulled out again with our friends at 7:30, and sailed into the sunset. The first leg of the trip was over the Little Bahama Bank, which is still a pretty protected area, the plan being to save the more challenging part of the trip, the Gulf Stream, for the daytime. The wind was out of the east, about 15-20, and seas relatively flat, about 2-3. I took the first watch with Liza, 9-12, and had a wonderful sail under auto-pilot. The sky was clear and we studied the stars, and talked to the other boats on the radio. Although John was supposed to be sleeping, he couldn't fall asleep, so at 11:30, came up to relieve me. I slept from 12 -1:30, and was wakened by the roll of the boat, as we left the protection of the Bank. I took the wheel for about an hour while John rested, and then handed the wheel off again. Although I gave John a couple of short breaks, he drove for the majority of the early morning hour and the next day. The waves were up to 4-6, with an occasional 8. The wind stayed east for the entire night, which was not forecast. Its very challenging driving directly downwind and keeping the sails full, and I found it very difficult to keep the boat relatively straight and not continually over-correcting. We have a great auto-pilot, but have found it is not calibrated correctly and could not hold our course in the waves. John hand-steered the boat almost continuously during the early morning and day, and did an incredible job keeping the boat fairly flat and comfortable. I felt very luckily to have such a capable captain. Even after fifteen hours of driving, with only short naps, he was heard on the radio saying "The only thing I am missing in life is a trust fund!". Amazing that he was is content after such a long night and day, and wasn't wishing for a huge boat and crew! (maybe that would come with the trust fund though)
Anyhow, it was a nice sentiment for me on Mother's Day. We entered the ICW at Fort Pierce Inlet at 2 p.m. on the 13th, and picked up a mooring in Vero Beach.


Kids "on watch"

Following Dharma into the sunset

                                                          Eliza's video of the waves

ZUSAMMEN 6 Miles from US soil.

We're almost back in the States.  Been an amazing winter and we're sad to leave the Bahamas.  Passage stories and video in a layer post. Sleep first!

Back at the Bluff House

We spent a restless night at anchor in Green Turtle Cay, with boats dragging in the wind, horns going off, boats aground, but luckily for us, Zusammen holding firm. In the morning some squalls and water spouts came through, which was thrilling to see. We moved back into the Bluff House Marina in time to wave our friends on Celilo off, who are heading to Charleston. We're looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight.

Water-spouts forming off our bow. Look for the dark downward pointing funnels.

Green Turtle Cay, Powell Cay, Manjack Cay, repeat, repeat

On 4/27 we went to Manjack Cay, a beautiful cay with a few houses, but pretty remote feeling and very peaceful. There is a mangrove that is easy to explore, full of conch, turtles, and even a large trigger fish that we spotted as its fin cut thru the water. Tyler, Ben, and Nat have been having a blast adventuring together, spearing fish, and snorkeling. Likewise, Liza, Cole, Ben, Win, and Hoku have been playing at a dock with a big yellow slide, beach combing, and snorkeling, and having a great time.

John in the mangrove

Cool fort we found on the beach

Raymond

On 4/28 we were excited to see Sally and Conrad on 'Its About Time' in the harbor at Manjack. They are friends we met back in Frasier Hog Cay. They had friends aboard that we had fun meeting, and spent an afternoon beach combing and exploring. I found several green urchins, that I am really hoping to get home without breaking. We keep them in old Crystal Light containers for protection.

4/29 Went to Green Turtle Cay and stayed at the Green Turtle Club. Chere and Dharma were with us, and we all had a great time taking a break from 'roughing it'. John and I had been here years ago with Steve and Margarete, and we easily recognized it. The marina has a deal where you can get a credit in the restaurant for what you spend on dock fees. We all had dinner in the restaurant, drank 'Tipsy Turtles', and had a great time!

with Betsy at the Green Turtle Club

We found our burgee!

Eating dinner on the dock

Green Turtle Club

5/5 Cinco de Mayo!
We left Manjack Cay for Powell Cay. We're back with our friends from Osprey again, Wendy, Johnny, Kaeo, and Bird. All the other boats we've been with traveled to Powell as well, so I think there are 9 boats now. We had a big bonfire on the beach at night, and the kids roasted apples over the fire, a great alternative to marshmallows, especially before bed! Tyler, John, and I went scuba diving together here, my first time with Tyler. He is very calm and responsible under water which I was very glad to see. He also is very funny, doing imitations of superman and Neil Armstrong. We saw some beautiful coral, and tons of fish.


5/6 Green Turtle Cay again! The wind is forecast to be heavy out of the west/northwest so we headed back to Green Turtle for protection. We checked into the Bluff House Marina for 2 nights. While there, we were completely protected from the west wind, and it was extremely hot. Good thing there was a pool for the kids and a deck overlooking the water for drinks! We had dinner out with Makana and Dharma, and had fantastic food. Coconut encrusted grouper for me! The marina had the same dockage/credit deal we saw before, so we enjoyed dinner and breakfast out. Courtney, Katie, and I went for a long run while here, which was fun, but extremely hot and hilly.

John and Courtney

5/8 Back to Majack - Back for a snorkel trip on the outside for John and Tyler, book reading for me, and boat jumping for Liza and friends. In the evening we crossed to the big island of Abaco to the west for wind protection. For dinner we had a potluck on Celilo, while the kids watched a movie on Dharma. We ate fresh      
mutton snapper that Cookie Monster and Chere had caught on the quick trip over that was delicious.

5/9 Back to Green Turtle....we woke up with S/SW winds and Zusammen bobbing like a cork. Back down to Green Turtle, this time on an anchor. Tomorrow there's a forecast for squalls and strong wind gusts, so we may be here for a couple of days. Our plan had been to head for the states this weekend, but now I think it will be late next week, or the following week.