Hilton Head-Charleston - Apr 19-26

After spending Saturday night anchored out on Calibogue Sound, we woke to a dark, overcast day.

But we stayed right there and watched the PGA golf tournament final round from the boat. It ended up exciting as Jim Furyk won in a playoff. All the boats sounded our horns when he won. Even though we were moving right next door to the Harbour Town Marina the next day, we decided to move for the evening since storms were predicted. (a tornado watch also) We found a spot up Bull Creek four miles away where we dropped the anchor and rode out the storm. The storm blew through strong but quickly. 

Monday morning we pulled into Harbour Town Yacht Basin at Hilton Head. What a great marina located in the heart of Sea Pines Resort. We spent the rest of the day on Monday as well as Tuesday biking around the island on their fabulous bike trails. The scenery was beautiful riding past moss covered trees, southern charm homes and golf courses. We also rode for miles on the beaches.

What a hoot! The wildlife highlights were jellyfish on the beaches, alligators on the golf courses and deer in between.  We had so much fun in Hilton Head we wanted to stay longer, but we had to move on.

Wednesday we traveled 28 miles up the ICW to Beaufort, SC. Here we stayed at the Downtown Beaufort Marina. Beaufort is a quaint town with many historical southern mansions. It was fun taking a walking tour by these homes. Shopping wasn't bad either! 

Thursday we took the courtesy car for a quick grocery run. We were limited to one hour use of the car so we really had to hustle. Captain "I don't grocery shop" thought it was great fun to prove it can be done in an hour (including drive time!).  We departed Beaufort and traveled 44 miles to Toogoodoo Creek. Our wildlife highlights today were sea turtles and dolphins! After dropping the hook we took a dinghy ride to check out the area and then cooked out.

Friday we traveled 33 WINDY miles to Charleston SC. The only wildlife on this trip was the brave captain on the helm wearing everything he had with him including his sheepskin slippers. We had left all the canvas off from the warm day before but once we started traveling we realized the strong winds and cooler temps made it miserable on the helm. The first mate was ordered to stay below and bake cookies to keep the captain nourished. After an hour of this we finally reached a bend in the intracoastal that gave us enough protection to be able to put the canvas up. We arrived at the Charleston Harbor Marina around noon. That afternoon we took the complimentary trolley across the river to historical downtown Charleston. We toured, shopped and had dinner.

We had strong storms throughout the night and into Saturday morning. This gave us a good opportunity to get some chores done on the boat in the morning. By noon the rains had cleared so we walked next door to Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum. This is the home of the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier, USS Laffey destroyer, and the USS Clamagore submarine. The first mate decided to wait on the dock while the Captian toured the submarine. Too close of quarters for Sheli! We both toured the other two ships as well as a Vietnam Experience exhibit. All very impressive! 

Sunday morning we jumped on our bikes and peddled to Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church. After the service, we learned from one of the church members that this afternoon was the Blessing of the Fleet at a nearby park and pier. After changing our clothes back at the boat, we again jumped on our bikes and headed for the festivities. At 1pm the shrimp boats paraded past the end of the pier where local pastors said a prayer for each boat. It's a huge event for the town with music, local vendors selling their crafts and of course awesome shrimp!  It was a windy day that kept us here for another day and we are so glad we did! 

 Famous Harbour Town Lighthouse.

 Harbour Town Yacht Basin. Loved it!

 Low tide - note sea wall....

 High tide - note no sea wall.

 Hope he doesn't know we've been eating gator!

 Biking selfie on beach.

 Jellyfish/speed bump.

 Beautiful Beaufort SC.

 More trees with moss. Wow!

 USS Yorktown

 Heading down into the sub.

 Great cookie recipe from the USS Yorktown. Now we just need to pick up the ingredients. 

 First mate taking off.

 Shrimp boat.

 Awesome shrimp!

Fernandina Beach-Hilton Head - April 13-18

Monday morning we climbed on our bikes and headed to Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island. The park was about 5 miles from the boat. This is a 1427 acre park with beaches, a campground, many trails, the fort, as well as a pier which runs along the inlet at the St Mary's River.  Navy Submarines come in and out of this inlet to reach the base at Kings Bay Navel Base. We did not see any go by, so we are not sure if any went by or not.  Captain "I don't go the same way twice" was determined that we could find a different to route out of the park. This led us to a dead end road with a locked gate and fence at the end. After checking the area for security cameras, we proceeded through the woods, around the gate and over the fence. Anything for a short cut!  Later that afternoon, the captain gave the first mate a haircut! This is a first! The rain came in at night, but we were prepared with our umbrella in hand as we walked into town for dinner.

Tuesday morning it was time to bid farewell to Fernandina Beach and continue north. After just a couple miles, we crossed into Georgia. It was sad to leave Florida as it's been our home for over four months.  We passed Kings Bay Navel Base and could see one submarine in dock. We traveled a total of 67 miles and dropped the anchor in Teakettle Creek. It was a calm, wide, deep anchorage in the marshes of Georgia. The anchor dropped, and we were set for the evening. This took a whopping 3 minutes. Much better than at St George Island four nights ago! Whew!

Wednesday as we continued north, we would need to pass through an area in the ICW called Hell Gate which cannot be traversed at low tide. Our timing was such that we would arrive this area at low tide. Our options were to wait several hours for the tide to go up or go around which would bring us nearly out to the ocean and back in. Since it was a beautiful day, we decided to go out, leave the ICW and travel on the Atlantic Ocean. We traveled 30 miles on the outside and came back in at the Savannah River Inlet. It was a nice change to set the autopilot and go for 3 hours. No boats, no curves or shallows to contend with. We saw a few dolphins and many, many, many jellyfish. We traveled 15 miles up the Savannah River and tied up the the Savannah City Dock. (Total mileage for the day was 82 miles)  This location puts us right in the heart of town and walking distance to all Savannah's attractions. The Savannah River is one of the Eastern Seaboard's busiest ports. It was fun watching all the container ships pass by. At night the rains fell in force. The steps from the town down to the riverfront became waterfalls.  This did not deter us from meeting our friends John & Jill from Endeavor for dinner. We all sloshed our way into the restaurant. We traveled with John down the rivers and crossed the Gulf with him. John completed his loop in the Fort Myers area in December. 

Thursday was overcast and cool, but a good day to explore Savannah. What pretty town with all its parks and history. Shopping was great also! Late afternoon, John & Jill picked us up with their car and gave us a short city tour. They also took us to one of their favorite restaurants named Johnny Harris BBQ established in 1924. Awesome ribs and chicken!

Friday was social day. We had lunch with John from Endevour and Ken & Terri from Roundabout at the Shrimp Shack. Then we had dinner with Jim & Connie from Patriot and Bill & Lori from Perfect Day.  It was fun catching up with these folks as we haven't seen them for some time now. 

Saturday morning we walked to the farmers market in one of the many Savannah parks. After loading up in some goodies we pulled out of Savannah.  We traveled only 22 miles to Hilton Head Island, SC.

We dropped the hook in Calibogue Sound just off the 18th green at Harbour Town Golf Links. The PGA tour RBC Heritage golf tournament was being played here this weekend. After watching some of the tournament from the boat, we dropped the dinghy and took a cruise up Calibogue Creek where there are neat little shops and the home of the The Salty Dog Cafe and T-Shirt factory.  In the evening we took the dinghy over to Harbour Town Marina to check our the tournament festivities. 

Have we mentioned tides and currents? As we are passed through Georgia, we experienced 11 foot tides. This means an enormous amount of water flows in from the Atlantic to fill rivers, creeks sounds and marshes at high tide only to turn around and flow back out to sea for low tide 6 hours later. This causes some grief in anchoring as the the current changes 180 degrees every 6 hours as well as great changes in water depth. While tied to the City Dock in Savannah, the current and flooding rains from Wednesday night brought an enormous amount of debris, logs and trees floating up and down the river. We could hear logs bouncing off the bottom of the boat during the night. Also, while anchored in Calibogue Sound noise in the night caused is to get up only to see a river of sticks and marsh grass flowing along side the boat. This brings back memories of the Mississippi! Argh!

 Submarine or no submarine. How do one know?

 Long walk on a long pier! HeeHee.

 Submarine at the base.

 Passing Cumberland Island which has many wild horses.

 Pura Vida docked in Savannah.

 Busy Savannah River.

 Container ship passing by. 

 Meeting container ship.

 John & Jill from Endevour.

 Spanish Moss hanging on Oaks

 That's moss in the background, not her new haircut!

 Harbour Town.

New Smyrna Beach-Fernandina Beach - Apr 6-12

Easter Sunday afternoon, after a yummy BLT lunch on the boat, we took a walk over to New Smyrna Beach. Out of the blue, we heard "Hey Steve!" and there was Rob Vis yet another one of Steve's customers from home. Rob was in Florida with his family for Spring Break. There's that small world thing again! The beach was busy with many cars driving up and down it. Watch out!

Monday morning it was time to move on. We traveled a whopping 17 miles up to Daytona. Our friends Dave and Michelle from Just Us were at Loggerhead Marina so we joined them there. We had a fun afternoon by the marina pool catching up. Our stories continued over dinner at Caribbean Jacks.The last time we saw them was mid November in Orange Beach, Alabama. 

Dave helped throw off our lines early Tuesday morning as we were heading 51 miles to St Augustine.  It was another beautiful, hot day for traveling. About 20 miles short of our destination, we passed Matanzas Inlet and Fort Matanzas. This area was beautiful with sandy dunes and clear waters. We were very tempted to stop and drop the hook for the night, but we were not able to adjust our St Augustine marina reservations, so we plowed on. (Guess we can't stop and every beach!)  By late afternoon we pulled into St Augustine Municipal Marina. St Augustine is said to be the Oldest City in America with many beautiful historical buildings. We walked around town in the evening to get the lay of the land.

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early to go to the Outlet Mall. We walked a couple miles to the bus stop where we caught the local bus to the mall (only a $1.00 per person - what a deal)  After the first store, "Captain I Don't Shop" announced the the return bus options were either in 2 hours or 5 hours. Needless to say we were on the bus 2 hours later. It was such a beautiful day, that another dinghy ride was in order. Our dinghy exploration brought us to Salt Run which is a small bay near the Atlantic inlet. 

Thursday was work day! Sheli spent the morning catching up on wash at the marina laundry while Steve washed the boat  and removed, cleaned and reinstalled the water speed indicator unit in the bottom of the boat.

A little shopping and touring in historical downtown was in order when our chores were done. In the evening there was a band, food and drinks on the marina lawn as part of the festivities for the weekend sailboat race. 

With the big sailboat race going on, the marina was full for the weekend. We had the option to move to a mooring ball on Friday, but decided that morning it was best if we moved on. We left St Augustine by 10am Friday morning without a planned destination. Sheli got busy on the IPAD checking anchorages along the Intracoastal. We chose a spot 46 miles north just off Ft George Island which would give us protection from the nighttime forecasted wind direction.  Dropping the hook proved to be quite an adventure this time.  After putting the anchor down near shore the unseen current made the boat swing away from shore rather than down wind. So we pulled the anchor back up and dropped it again along with a stern anchor. At that point, a different current pushed us toward shore and on the bottom. Since the tide was dropping, we had to react quickly. We put the dinghy in the water, and took the dinghy out to retrieve the anchor and drop it further off shore. We could then pull this line and use the motors to get us back in deep water. With no way of retrieving both anchors at one time without again getting beached, we needed to abandon the stern anchor. After attaching one of our fender balls to the anchor line we threw the whole works overboard and went to work on lifting the bow anchor. We then settled for dropping the anchor in the middle the channel to allow us to swing with the ever changing currents and wind. Once settled, the captain had to take the dinghy out to retrieve the stern anchor. Whew...that was an hour and twenty minute parking job!  By the time we finished cooking steaks on the grill for dinner, the wind had dropped and stayed calm all night. Later that night, in the quietness you can only experience on an anchored boat, we heard what we thought was the drum roll of native savages coming to attack us. Only to realize it was most likely Drum fish making their normal drumming sounds under our boat. Definitely the better of the two options!

Saturday morning we cruised a pleasant twenty mile trip to Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island. Our home for the next three nights was the Fernandina Harbor Marina. In the afternoon we rode bike to the beach and explored the town. This is a quaint town with fun shops and restaurants right by our marina.

Sunday morning we attended the Memorial United Methodist Church. We thoroughly enjoyed their service. Around noon Tod & Angie Bierling from Jacksonville came to see us and have lunch. (Tod's parents & family have been friends of Sheli's family forever) After lunch, they shuttled us in their car to the local Winn-Dixie for some much needed groceries. Priceless. After they left, the rain arrived late so we settled in the Pura Vida to watch The Masters golf tournament. 

 Rob Vis & Steve discussing business on the sidewalk.

 Leaving New Symrna Beach.

 Starting to see shrimpers again.

 Private beach found off St Augustine Inlet.

 Lots of Jellyfish!

St Augustine church.

 Leaving St Augustine.

 Cars on the beach. Sailboat race in the background.

 Cruising "The Ditch"

 Captain retrieving stern anchor. 

 Here's what over an hour of setting anchor looks like on the chart plotter! (Yellow is land, Green is land at low tide)

 Tod & Angie Bierling.

Ft Lauderdale-New Smyrna Beach - Mar 27-Apr 5

Friday morning we left Ft Lauderdale and traveled 31 miles up the Intracoastal. We continue to be amazed by the homes and yachts in the area. It was a very hot, but beautiful day to travel. 

Late afternoon, we dropped the hook just south of Latana Bridge. Since rain was expected, we put up all the canvas and sat out a brief shower on the boat. When the rain let up, we took the dinghy to shore to the Old Key Lime House restaurant for dinner. Then the real storm came through. All we could do was watch the Pura Vida vanish from sight in the curtain of rain. Thankfully the anchor held firm.

The Friday evening storm brought in much cooler weather. On Saturday, We traveled all day with the canvas up for warmth. The Boat Show was going on in Palm Beach so the area was very busy. Once again we saw many impressive mega yachts. Our home for the evening was Hobe Sound. We dropped anchor near the west shore and also put down a stern anchor to hold us tight to shore as it was predicted to get fairly windy during the night.

Sunday was another cool and windy day. We traveled 34 miles up to Fort Pierce where we stayed 2 nights at the City Marina.  This is a heavy gravity marina as we dropped and lost both our waste tank cover and our boat wash brush. A bike ride to West Marine and Boat Owners Wearhouse got us back ship shape. 

On Monday, our friends Russ, Elaine and Sea Dog Ike from Twelve Stones drove over from Fort Myers to visit. We had a great lunch on the Fort Pierce inlet.  Russ and Elaine have given us tons of great advice and information as they have finished the Loop. We will miss them as we continue on and they are staying in Florida. Later that afternoon, we took a dinghy ride around the area. 

Tuesday we left Fort Pierce around noon after a morning bike ride. We cruised 52 miles up to Melbourne. It was close to 7pm when we dropped the hook for evening.

On Wednesday, we woke to find the boat full of water! April Fools! HaHa! We traveled 18 miles to Cocoa Village City Marina for 2 nights. Cocoa Village is a quaint town with fun shops and restaurants.

Captain Fix-it found the greatest, 3 story, got everything, hardware store named Travis Hardware. If they had a fourth floor with apartments, he may have stayed forever. While Steve spent time drooling in the hardware, Sheli enjoyed the other shops in town. At night we walked into town for pizza, or as one of our Canadian friends call it "stink wheel". 

On Thursday, we rented at car and went to the Kennedy Space Center. It was fun, educational and very impressive! Late afternoon we drove through Port Canaveral and to Cocoa Beach. 

Friday morning was another beautiful day for cruising. Along the way we traveled through Haulover Canal (near NASA).  Native Americans and early settlers were forced to portage or "haul over" their canoes and boats across a half mile of land from the Indian River to Mosquito Lagoon prior to the building of this canal. Along this canal, there is a basin about the size of a hockey rink (go Red Wings) which is crowded with Manatees. It looked like a Manatee Flash Mob! Awesome!  We continued on to our anchorage in Mosquito Lagoon.  How crazy does that sound?  The name was misleading as we did not have one mosquito all night. We dropped the dinghy and rode 1/4 mile to shore where the first mate jumped off and walked a few hundred yards over a hill to the Atlantic Ocean beach. Beautiful beach! 

Saturday we traveled 15 miles to New Smyrna Beach where we took a slip for 2 nights at New Smyrna Marina. (Very new and nice!)  In the afternoon we took the dinghy to the Ponce Inlet. Near the inlet, there are many sandy beach small islands where local boaters hangout on the weekend. 

Easter Sunday, we woke early as we were planning to attend Easter sunrise service on the beach. Then it dawned on us (yes, pun intended), this would require a 5 mile bike ride in the dark with no lights. Plan B was to get a taxi. It seems they are not readily available in this area at 6am. So, it was back to bed for a couple hours and then we attended Easter Service at the United Church of Christ located a mile from the boats. Happy Easter to all. He is Risen!

 Awesome home!

 Nice digs!

 Pura Vida before the storm.

 Honey, I lost the boat!

 Palm Beach Boat Show

 I wouldn't want to pay the shrink wrap bill on one of these boats!

 Boy manatees can get big!

 Russ, Elaine and Sea Dog Ike

 Beach spoil island

 Kennedy Space Center 

 NASA Vehicle Assembly Building 

 Captain in front of space shuttle launch rocket

 Moon rover!

 Full moon over Mosquito Lagoon.