Fernandina Beach with the Randy and Carla

We spent a terrific couple of days and evenings with Randy and Carla. They stayed in an area hotel because Carla said they needed time to talk about us behind our backs.
I kept forgetting my camera, so these pictures are courtesy of Randy, Carla and their red camera.


The Hootons (pronounced Hu-tawwwn) on Fernandina Beach.


Carla just had to get a picture of the white sand.  Need your sink fixed?


On day 2 Carla represented the Hooton family in accepting the "longest distance travelled to visit Nicki May in November" prize. The toaster features extra wide slots, and yellowish bars on one end to make it easy to identify the push down handle for easy operation. Oh, and it has been marinized, so that quadruples it's value.

We keep exploring ways to attain endangered species status.


Chilly dinghy ride back to the mooring field.

We had a great time with Randy and Carla. It was a bit cold while they were here, but at least it was sunny and dry. We bid a sad goodbye to them Saturday night, so now it is time to focus on our migration south to the Miami area.

Charleston, South Carolina to Fernandina Beach, Florida

Our time on Dewees Creek/Long Creek was not the most fun we have ever had, but we accomplished our goal--to keep our boat in the creek and not outside of the creek. We like to "drive" between the lines. The winds were to be from the north, so after 2 nights we moved just inside the mouth of Long Creek where it intersects with Dewees Creek. The strong current in these creeks is tidal and is quite impressive. Basically, it switches direction every 6 hours. When the winds are light it's no big deal, but when they pick up, it gets interesting. When the tide was with the wind, we were stress free, but when it opposed the wind, we went flying from one side of the creek to the other. So we did anchor watches on the ebb tides. We were not able to leave on Friday the 13th, because the winds were still a bit strong, but we were able to leave early Saturday morning. The north winds created flooding the morning we left, so even the 2 foot tall grass that protected us through the week was going underwater at high tide. It actually looked pretty cool--especially since we were leaving. We needed to go offshore so that we could get some rest.

There were a lot of boats that had been stuck in the Charleston area waiting for weather, so we had plenty of company as we left the jetties and pointed south. At least one boat got stuck on the jetties outside of Charleston. A lot of the jetties on the east coast are under water at high tide waiting to catch the unaware. We had a new moon (which means no moon), so the stars were spectacular--you see, my glass is half full. Once again, we had wonderful weather. We sailed as long as the wind was there, then motorsailed. We made it to St. Mary's Inlet (at the border of Georgia and Florida) Sunday morning, and continued on to the small town of St Mary's.

An old Presbyterian Church in St. Mary's.

St. Mary's is a small, quiet town which is very friendly to sailors. They have a Thanksgiving dinner for cruisers every year--which is a big draw. We met a lot of nice people during our week there. Among them were fellow Texans Rick and Linda from Sojourner. Rick's a retired police officer from Mesquite, Texas where Lisa and I lived before moving to Frisco. I even got to watch football on his boat--he has a TV--go figure. Lisa and I really enjoyed our time with Rick and Linda.

On a side note...having a Texas registration sticker on your boat or dinghy works as well as walking a cute dog to pick up a date. Texans spot you and will talk to you, and they are out here. If you are in New York, the locals will start talking to you about President Bush. He's from Texas, so they assume he's your daddy. So if you are lonely, or need a dose of common sense, raise the Lone Star to the starboard spreader, or slap a Texas registration sticker on your dinghy and your problem is solved.

I found this pretty lady standing in front of a house at St. Mary's.

I whistled at her and I finally got her to look.

We left St. Mary's and grabbed a mooring ball at Fernandina Harbor, which is just across the state line. Our friends, Randy and Carla, are going to meet us here for a couple of days around Thanksgiving. They're driving all the way from Cleburne, Texas (what was that about common sense). We haven't seen them since leaving Texas, and are looking forward to their visit.

Solomons, Maryland to Charleston, South Carolina--Almost

A pretty Cabo Rico anchored near us in a creek near Solomons. You guessed it--on Mill Creek.

We stayed an extra day so that we could make a grocery store run. After a couple of days in this anchorage, we made our way south to The Great Wicomico River.


Yep, Mill Creek again. They must have had a lot of mills in the old days. Northerners need to stop making fun of my brother Darrell and my other brother Darrell--if you catch my drift. 

This is one of our favorite places. We stopped here for several days on our way north. The trees are trying to change to their fall colors.


An older Valiant 40.

The forecast called for very strong winds for a couple of days, so we had planned to stay here to ride out the weather before proceeding south. We ended up staying for 3 nights. The nasty weather never materialized.


This was the sunset on the second night. Blow this one up.

On our third night, we met Dave, Nancy, Chris, and Josh from Liberty. We had a really nice evening with them. They're from Texas, so you know they're good people. And they make the best conch fritters we've ever tasted.

The next morning we had a wonderful, brisk sail to Deltaville. Winds were 20-25 knots just off the stern, and we had a fair tide.

The following day, the anchor was up at daylight and we had another very breezy sail to Mobjack Bay. Once again, the current was with us. It was nice that we were able to actually sail almost all the way down the Chesapeake. OK, now I'm glad we have a sailboat and not a trawler.

Our next stop would be to get in position for the first leg down the ICW. We decided to try the anchorage at Hospital Point in Portsmouth, which is basically at mile zero on the ICW. So we left Mobjack Bay and had another awesome sail, wing and wing with the Genoa poled out, all the way to Thimble Shoal Light. The wind died right on cue--it was time to enter the busy ship channel which leads to Norfolk and Portsmouth. Norfolk has the largest navy shipyard in the world, so you see quite an impressive collection of steel as you float by. The ships managed to dodge us, and our anchor was down by mid afternoon. The anchorage worked out better than we had anticipated.

The first leg south on the ICW is not our favorite. There are 9 bridges and one lock, all with time restrictions, and the first possible anchorage is 57 miles away (remember, sailboat). Oh, and about 9 million other boats from Canada and the US trying to do the same thing. It's sort of like the start of The Turkey Trot or a 10K race that is well attended. You walk the first couple of blocks because there is not enough room to run at first. That's how it is at the bridges. Big boat jams.

Our anchor was up at 5:30 the next morning. We had to be at the first bridge for the 6:30 opening or we would have to wait around until 9:00. It was before the time change, so it would remain dark until about 7:00. We really didn't want to do this section in the dark, but it worked out just fine. Thankfully everything went smoothly the whole day and the anchor was down well before dark.

We were off at first light the following day and were able to sail across the Arbermarle Sound. We even tacked back and forth. We were tempted to sail around a bit longer just for fun, but we had to make it to the Pungo River anchorage before dark. When we got to the Alligator River, we had 20-25 knots of wind on the nose, so it was quite bouncy. We had the anchor down in the Pungo River anchorage just after 6, and then we got the dinghy down to go visit Fred and Debbie from Early Out. They also have a Caliber 40 like ours. We had a really good visit with them.

The weather was nasty the next day, so we stayed put. We spent most of the day studying charts.



The following morning was still cold with a light drizzle. When we weighed anchor, 2 wayward crab pots came up with the anchor. Did I mention it was cold? And wet? And there weren't even any crabs for our trouble. Fortunately, it wasn't much of a tangle and we got our anchor back without much fuss.

We hadn't walked on land for many days, so we decided to make a short trip (even for a sailboat) of 14 miles to the town of Belhaven. We did lots of walking, did laundry, dumped a shower full of trash (it's a sailboat), and made a couple of trips to the grocery store. It was a much needed stop.

Next stop was South River, which is off the Neuse River. We went several miles up the river and anchored near a creek. We were supposed to get strong winds, but they never materialized.

Our next leg was 204 nautical miles. The plan was to leave South River early Friday morning, go out the Beaufort, NC Inlet, then make landfall Saturday afternoon through Winyah Bay Inlet near Georgetown, South Carolina, and then anchor in Minim Creek.

There was a gale around Hatteras the night before we left, but the winds were supposed to be down to 20-25 knots from the Northeast by the time we were to arrive at the inlet. Then they were supposed to drop to 15 to 20 by afternoon and continue to weaken.

Our anchor was up an hour before the sunrise, and we made good time to the inlet. We were halfway out the inlet when the Coast Guard decided they wanted a tour of our boat. We could have told them we don't do drapes or cutesy wall hangings, so no good ideas from us. That all went as smoothly as we could have hoped for--and no fines. They were very polite and friendly, as were we. It never ceases to shock us how young these guys and gals are. We forgot to take a picture of their boat (with the machine gun on their bow) rafted up to us...oh well, maybe next week. That whole process took about 30 minutes.

The seas were sloppy as expected, and the winds were dead on the stern and weaker than predicted. The winds died to about 4 knots apparent so we rolled in the sails and cranked the engine. Although we had to motor nearly the entire way, it was a beautiful trip. The 2 days were beautiful, and the night was beautiful. We had 35/64 of a moon, but it was bright and beautiful. Lisa was beautiful. I was worried we might get very cold--there was a frost warning inland, but it was very comfortable the whole way. We made it to our anchorage at Minim Creek before noon on Saturday.

High winds associated with Ida were predicted to hit our area Tuesday night and last through Friday. So after resting up for a day we took the ICW south to Dewees Creek, which is about 8 miles north of Charleston. Skipper Bobs (cruising guide) gives this creek the highest rating for wind protection. Now I love Skipper Bobs, but miles of 2 foot tall grass wasn't what I had in mind as protection from the wind!

Our plan, subject to change, is to leave here Saturday, go out the Charleston Ship Channel and head back in at St. Simons Inlet in southern Georgia. We are thinking of taking a peek at Brunswick.