Morehead City to Ocracoke

After the rough passage, it was heavenly to actually tie up to a dock at a marina. 

We stayed at Morehead City Yacht Basin which is not too far from the Beaufort Inlet. We highly recommend this marina if you are in the area. The dock masters and staff are as nice and helpful as you will ever meet. We stayed for two nights--mostly because we were too tired to wash our boat the day we arrived.


Tied up at the dock. The fuel pump was right at our dock as well. We fueled up for the first time in 2 1/2 months even though we still had 55 or 60 gallons left.


Keeping up appearances. Not a British TV show, but attempting to conquer rust. Lisa is polishing the stainless with Flitz. With little to no fresh water for extended periods of time, the rust gets out of hand quickly. The stainless in stainless steel does not mean it is without stain, but rather, it stains less than steel. We would prefer nostain steel. Boat builders generally use 304 SS because it's cheaper than 316 or higher grade stainless--but it rusts more readily.


This is Adams Creek Canal. Our destination for the day was a short hop to South River. On our way to South River we did a drive by to Oriental, but the 48 foot tall bridge makes it a destination for smaller sailboats.


We loved the anchorage on South River. There is plenty of room with good holding. We stayed there for 2 nights, both to rest (didn't get much rest at the marina because we had to take advantage of the amenities while there), and to get some projects done. Lisa worked hard on the stainless, and Nicki May is finally looking decent again.


Lisa made me get in the lazarette, then fed me cookies so that I couldn't get back out. While I was there, I took some wiring off our Pactor Modem. Lisa enjoyed her time alone and I enjoyed my cookies.

From South River, we took a side trip to Ocracoke on the Outer Banks. You can only get to the island by boat. It is right next to Hatteras. The trip over was uneventful and relaxing. The winds were 5-8 knots with 1 foot chop on the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound---AHHHHH. A beautiful day. We sailed a couple of segments, but motored most of the day. We wound our way in to our anchorage on Silver Lake, and dropped the anchor in mid afternoon.

NASA Bridge to Morehead City

Our anchor was up before sun up as we headed for Daytona Beach. Our first bascule bridge was at Titusville, where we had to wait for 20 minutes for an ambulance. That would be quick in New Orleans.

We did not deal with the bridge tenders on the west coast of Florida, or south of Fort Pierce Inlet because we did not do the ICW in those areas. But the ones we dealt with from Ft. Pierce and north through the rest of Florida, were extremely polite, prompt, professional, courteous, and friendly. We didn't even have to wait for a commercial break in their soap operas for them to reluctantly respond to us when we hailed them. Please don't jump to the conclusion that I am comparing them to the tenders in New Orleans. Anyway, credit is due to the Florida tenders and their bosses.

We had our anchor down a bit after 3:00--you guessed it, in front of another bridge. For the past couple of years, I've been telling Lisa we are going to end up living under a bridge. At least we will know which ones are the best. On second thought, maybe we shouldn't pick a bridge that goes over water.

 

The boat in front of us is a beautiful schooner named Thalea. We followed her from Daytona to St. Augustine. When we got to St. Augustine, we went up a river a couple of miles to try and anchor. We couldn't find even a marginal spot, so we ended up anchoring outside the ICW close to shore. We did not anchor where everyone else does (in front of a marina), because it was too crowded with strong shifting currents. Nobody with guns told us to move, so we slept well.

Earlier in the day, we passed Sea Trek anchored near a bridge. 

The previous owner of Sea Trek spent some time docked at Watergate Marina in Kemah. She was actually on the same dock where Lisa's mom and dad keep their boat. We read his blog long before we started cruising.

The next morning we were up at dawn again and headed to Fernandina Beach. Most of the homes on this section of the ICW have boat slips or lifts.

 

Darling passed us two days in a row. What that means is, he sleeps in later, and goes faster. But he also uses at least six times more fuel than we do. And I called him Captain, not Darling.

 

Bed and Breakfast ICW style.

After a long day, we finally made it to Fernandina Beach. We have been there once by car, but the view from the ICW is different. We thought we were in Baytown, Texas as the waterfront is very industrial. If you like the paper mill smell it would be great. But at least we weren't next to a bridge. We took a mooring across from the marina and ended up staying there for 4 nights. The marina personnel were excellent to deal with, and the town is cute if you can get used to the paper mill smell.

At this point, we were basically at the Georgia border. Georgia and South Carolina don't maintain their sections of the ICW very well, so Tow Boat US and Sea Tow do quite a business. I'm going to start a petition to divert money from the Georgia and South Carolina education funds to the ICW dredging fund.

The weather gurus indicated we had a good opportunity to go offshore for a few days. So we decided we would try to go from Fernandina to Beaufort NC. I estimated between 50 and 58 hours to make it to Beaufort. I wasn't sure how much push we would get from the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream moves around from day to day, and the speed of it's current varies as well. We knew we would have 25 knot SW winds the first night, but it was supposed to be more settled for the rest of our trip.

So at dawn on Tuesday April 21st we left Fernandina and went out St. Mary's Inlet in company with Sweet Surrender, a Whitby 42.

Tuesday was beautiful and fun sailing. Then late afternoon the wind died so it was motor sailing. We lost contact with Sweet Surrender at about 7:00 pm. At about 11:00 pm the Coast Guard issued a weather warning to expect 40 knot winds with big seas. We were about 60 miles offshore, so we rolled in the sails, put on the life jackets, and clipped on the harnesses. The lightening and wind hit us shortly after we heard the weather alert on the VHF. It blew in the mid 40s for several hours. We saw one gust that was 62 knots, and a few in the 50s. These were apparent wind speeds on our stern and we were going between 7 and 10 knots (7 going up and 10 going down). When it finally settled into the 30s it almost felt calm. It stayed in the 30s and upper 20s for the rest of the night and through the day on Wednesday. Needless to say the seas were uncomfortable. We talked briefly to S/V Whim, a Sabre 402, before the storm hit. Later, we heard them hail the Coast Guard for weather info, and they indicated they were getting gusts in the 40s. They were 30 or 40 miles closer to shore than we were. Whim was headed to Georgetown, but they may have ducked in at Charleston. Lisa talked to Chris Parker (weatherman extraordinaire) Wednesday morning and he assured her the winds would settle some by Wednesday evening. When the winds finally dropped to the upper teens Wednesday night, the waves were a bit confused still not comfortable.

When I took my watch at 1:20 am Thursday morning, I had a wonderful sail with beautiful stars. I was really too tired to deal with the sails, but if the motor is running you have to have the steaming light (white light 2/3 of the way up the mast) on. That destroys night vision, and you really can't see anything in front of you. That makes me nervous, so I prefer to sail rather than motor at night.

While we were approaching Beaufort, the Navy was conducting live fire practice not too far from us, so we could hear the big guns. They were constantly on the VHF to warn boats to stay at least 7 miles away.

At 1:00 pm Thursday we were finally tied up at a Marina in Morehead City (close to Beaufort). The offshore leg took 53 hours. We had our first shower in 3 days, so all was well.

The boat was spectacular. We were not ever afraid, although we were tired. I did fear for my electronics when the lightening came. I grabbed on to the rigging and begged the lightening to take me and not my electronics.

We saw tons of dolphins on this trip. They came by at least 11 or 12 times and stayed for 30 or 40 minutes each time.

Melbourne to NASA Causeway (aka. Addison Pt Bridge)

The next morning we left Melbourne and headed for the NASA Causeway Bridge. The forecast was for south and west winds at 25 to 30 knots for that evening and the next day. There was a chance of thunder storms with 40 knot winds as well. So we anchored by ourselves on the northeast side of the NASA Causeway Bridge. There was not enough water on the northeast side. We found a spot with swinging room with a few shoals and a small island around it. The causeway was very low so would not provide much wind protection, but would offer protection from the waves--which is more important. I set out about an 8 to 1 scope of all chain, and we backed down hard to make sure it was well set. We always do that anyway. The winds were around 30 knots when we anchored and stayed that way when I went to bed at about 11:30. Lisa woke me up (she's my watch dog) at about 1:00 am because there was an enormous black cloud over us that did not look good. So we fired up the chart plotter/radar and turned the engine on to make sure it was warmed up in case we needed it. Sure enough the wind and boat clocked around to the north, and we got winds in the upper 40s. But the anchor either held or reset with no problem.

Strong storms were still in the forecast for the next day, so we stayed where we were at. I prefer the known to the unknown, and we felt we were in a secure spot.

At about 10:30 am, we got hit with strong winds, hard rain, a little bit of hail (not much), and tons of lightening. We put the computers and some spare handheld GPSs in the oven because of the lightening. I didn't fit. The winds were in the mid to upper 40 knots, with some gusts in the mid 50s. This storm blew out in about 30 or 40 minutes. It did a thorough job of cleaning our boat of all the Lake Worth soot. It also cleaned a lot of old salt off to make room for new salt.

Lisa was able to get a radar image on her Kindal (sp?) that confirmed we were not out of the woods yet. At around 2:00 pm we got the next wave. This one lasted for almost four hours. During the morning storm, Lisa tried to get a picture of the wind instrument showing the 50 knot gusts, but every time the camera was ready it would go back to the 40s. The afternoon storm pretty much stayed in the mid 50 knot range. There were 3 gusts in the 80s, and a few in the 60s and 70s.

64.9 Knots.  The pictures show the anemometer (the middle wind instrument) wind speed readings at the bottom. These are in knots, so multiply the reading by 1.15 for miles per hour.


77.8 knots.

 

83.4 knots = 96 miles per hour.

 

Can we go to sleep now?

 

As usual, the calm after a storm.

 

After the sun went down, the sky was incredible.

 

Here' another one.

We are thankful the strongest storm came during the day, and did not bring lightening. We are glad we stayed anchored for the day even though we may have been where the winds were the strongest. That evening and night were beautiful and calm.

Lake Worth To The Melbourne Bridge

The anchorage was quite full the day we arrived at Lake Worth.

The migration from the Bahamas and South Florida to the Northeast had begun. Boats tend to go to and then depart the Bahamas in waves, because groups of boats are waiting for the same "weather window". The next day about 1/3 of the boats left.

While in Lake Worth, we spent a wonderful week with my Mom and Dad and my sister Carol. I have been blessed with a terrific family, for which I will be eternally grateful. We stayed at Carol's house, and spent the days and evenings at Mom and Dad's. We really had a good visit. On top of that we had great food, we got to sleep in a queen size bed, and the shower...lots of endless water pressure, and we didn't have to wipe it down when we were done. As usual, we gained weight while we were there as well. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Carol!


We were able to anchor for free, but the Municipal Marina charges $10.65 a day to dock the dinghy.

They used to have a water taxi service, but they will no longer stop at other boats. The dinghy ride to the dinghy dock is very wet because of the strong currents and wind. I'm sure we could have anchored in a more convenient place, but we were holding well, so that was good enough for us. When we got back to the boat it was filthy. There was black oily soot all over the boat and the dingy. I rinsed it off the best I could with the anchor wash down hose, but it was a mess.

Here is one of the ferries that docks at the Port of Palm Beach.

I wish I had taken a picture of the Dockwise ship that was in port while we were there. That's one of the ships that they partially sink, try to collect insurance, then they drive yachts into the submerged ship. They secure them on stands that they weld in position for each yacht. Then they float the ship and deliver the yachts across an ocean to wherever.

Our ocean jaunt to Fort Pierce was an easy day sail.

We left Port of Palm Beach (Lake Worth Inlet) on Saturday of Easter Weekend. It was a perfect day that you dream of for sailing. We had 10 to 15 knots of wind just off the stern. It made for an easy wing and wing downwind sail (that's with the main down wind and the genoa poled out to windward). We dodged fishing boats all day long. It is unbelievable how many sport fishing boats are in Florida. Our guide book indicated that there was a small portion of the ICW that we needed to transit on a half rising tide after entering the Fort Pierce Inlet. That meant we needed to time our arrival for late afternoon. We had departed Lake Worth at 10:00 am to time the tide right. The Gulf Stream is close to shore at Lake Worth Inlet then gets a bit further offshore further north. We stayed about 4 nautical miles offshore and got a good push from the Gulf Stream for about 2/3 of the trip. Then the wind died down as we got closer to Ft. Pierce and we lost the push of the Gulf Stream as well. We had benefited from current more than I had anticipated, so we took the pole down, rolled in the genoa, and putzed for a while under main alone. We were able to manipulate our speed (i.e. slow down) to time our arrival for the tide. I don't like arriving at a new to me anchorage too late in the day in case things don't work out, but I don't like going aground either. When we got there it was crowded. We dropped anchor in the only spot left that looked possible. Not to our liking, but we didn't have many options. We draw between 5' 4" depending on how much fuel and water are in the tanks, and how much misc. stuff is in the holding tank. I trained my brain that we are aground at 5' 6". When we were settled in the depth sounder showed 8.8', which gave us enough room for low tide. Then it was thump thump. We were aground with our depth sounder reading 8.8'. We took our portable dingy sounder and measured around the boat and it only showed 5 feet of water. We spent a long night heeled over at about 30 degrees when the tide dropped, but still resting on the keel. We also made the mistake of calculating tide at the Fort Pierce Inlet--since it was so close. I could almost spit on it. During our long night we realized our error. The tide was about 1.5 hours different at our anchorage. That meant we had further to lay over when the tide fell. The good news was it was a no wake zone next to a bridge and it was night time with no traffic. High tide was at a little after 12:00 pm the next day. During the night I noted, not for the first time, that every time we have run aground, the depth sounder read 8 foot something. The bad part is when it truly is 8 feet deep, it reads accurate, and we have been afloat with 5' 2" readings. I've checked the calibration with a tape measure several times. Usually after we are aground it will go to dashes. This time it read between 8 and 10 feet all night--while we were heeled over. I need to make a phone call. I wish we could use magnetic signs for our boat name so that we could take the name off at times like this. Sea Tow came by to offer his services at about 8:00 am, but I told him we would wait for high tide. At 11:00 am, I took the dingy off the davits to lighten the load. We were able to motor off with the help of the windlass. Our next step would have been to empty our most forward water tank, but that was not necessary.


It was great to see the other side of that bridge. We towed the dingy all day, because we didn't want to stop to raise it.

The high speed boat traffic on the ICW is unreal. You'll have 2 sport fishers pass you at full throttle on either side of you, then 2 bass boats will thread the needle between you and the sport fisher coming the other way--at full throttle. You are never sure of their intentions. They will come at you at full throttle then swerve at the last second. It seems that half of them grew up driving on the British side of the road, and the other half on the American side of the road. This goes on all day long. Of course it was a holiday weekend. It seems to calm down the further north you get in Florida. It is much worse when you are close to the inlets to the ocean.

We had a great down wind sail under genoa for the rest of the day. This part of the ICW is on the Indian River and is easy to sail on. We anchored on the northeast side of the Melbourne Bridge. There were only two other sailboats there. A much needed uneventful, quiet, and peaceful night.


Fixed bridges. We like these kind of bridges--so long as they are 65 feet tall.

Normans Cay to Lake Worth Florida

From Normans Cay, we headed to Highbourne Cay.

As forecast, the winds were strong from the south. We anchored at Highbourne thinking it would be marginal, but OK. The wind clocked a bit west of south, so we weighed anchor and hightailed it to Ship Channel Cay which had a wee bit more southwest protection. We made it with just enough light to anchor out of the reach of the reefs. It worked out well, and we left the next morning for Rose Island. The day started out cloudy, but cleared off in time for crossing the Yellow Banks. The Yellow Banks is a shallow area with a lot of reefs. So unless you are into Russian Roulette, you want sunlight overhead so that you can see the reefs. I think you could take a route that goes in between the Yellow Banks and the White Banks with little to worry about, but it's a bit longer. We made it to Rose Island without incident. I dove on the anchor for the last time this year--you can do that in the Bahamas. The holding wasn't the best, because the bottom is grass, but it worked.


Our last Bahamas at anchor sunset. Isn't Lisa beautiful?


We were in position to take advantage of our weather window. Everything is about weather windows. And then it is an educated guess. I'm OK with guessing, but the first part makes me queasy.

We left Rose Island for Lake Worth Inlet on March 31st. It was a beautiful day. We sailed north of Paradise Island successfully avoiding Nassau. We had a very nice sail until the wind died about 4 miles from the Northwest Channel Light. We had about an hour of light winds before they picked up to 25 knots on the stern.


It was time to take down the Bahama courtesy flag before things got bouncy.


The calm before the wind.

Soon after this picture, the winds picked up. We had a bouncy twisty night on the Banks. We motored since the winds were dead astern and gusty. Soon after leaving the Banks we were able to sail on a broad reach. Remember the silly game Twister? We can take you on now. Our first Gulf Stream crossing was smooth. This one was spirited, but not dangerous. The waves were very close together, so it was not comfortable, but it was nice to be sailing. Lake Worth Inlet is a class A all weather inlet, and it was a good thing. We had 30 knots of wind going in. We were anchored by 1:30 pm on April 1st.

Sampson Cay to Normans Cay

I haven't had an opportunity to update the blog for a while, but here goes...

We stayed for a several days at Sampson Cay, and enjoyed our time there. Fast Internet, friendly dinghy dock, cruiser jabber, a place to walk, secluded beach, and a store.

Sampson Cay

While we were in the Exumas, nearly everyday brought significant clouds, but we only had three minutes of rain our entire time in the Bahamas.

Sunset.

It was time to head north to stage our return to the US of A. Our next stop was Normans Cay. We tried out the restaurant by the airstrip. The burgers and fries were good, and I hope their kids choose a good college with the money we spent.

This is the trail from the beach to the airstrip. Trees like this are not common in the Exumas.

1-800-PLUMBERS. Do the fins make me look fat?