Nov 27-29 Tied up in Sarasota -- our winter port

Nov 27 - 29 Keys to Everglades to Sarasota

The trip from the Florida Keys to Sarasota is about 200 miles.
The first 40 miles is in very shallow water in the Florida Keys. We were told the "yacht channel" was plenty deep enough for us and the chart showed 7 feet... but we never saw over 5 feet and often close to 4 feet! We had to motor very slowly, prepared to stop quickly if we touched bottom. After about 5 hours of this (never again!) we got into "deep" water of 8 feet and headed for the recommended anchorage within the Everglades National Park on the Little Shark River. Several guides had suggested this anchorage as a unique wilderness area far from any city or town. We would be out of range of cell phone and email with only our Ham radio as our link to civilization (not counting the 200 channels of satellite television). We would be able to see amazing bird life and the occasional alligator. Some of the guides even footnoted that it could be "buggy". What an understatement! We loved the wilderness feel-- but the no-see-ums were deadly! We started the evening only opening windows that had screens not realizing the bugs could squeeze through the screen holes... by the time we closed all the windows and turned on the air conditioning we had thousands of these teeny bugs inside with us. Even though we coated ourselves with bug spray they kept biting us. We only got a few hours sleep and by about 3am we were sipping coffee, killing bugs, and waiting for dawn to be on our way. Definitely the worst anchorage of our trip!

The second leg of the trip was quite different! The water is over 20 feet deep and the course leads about 20 miles offshore to miss the shoals south of Cape Romano. We were no longer on the ICW always in sight of land and following from buoy to buoy. Instead we were out of sight of land and plotting our own course. It felt great!
We cruised along at 10 knots for 9 hours and only saw two other boats in the distance. It was exciting to arrive at South Seas Plantation Resort on Captiva Island and tie up at the marina among the palm trees. This was one of our kids' favorite marinas in the early 90's when we would sail down all night from Sarasota and enjoy the resort's trolley, pools, beach, and restaurants. The resort had been badly damaged a few years ago in the hurricane but has come back nicely. We shared Pina Coladas at the bar then enjoyed a great dinner in one of their restaurants and settled back aboard for a bug-less sleep!

Our last day was quite nostalgic-- we'd done this route many times in our sailboat and we knew this was the final day of our voyage from Newport. The sky was clear and the water was flat. We were about 10 miles offshore and no other boats in sight. We set the autopilot and took turns getting our bags packed and dead bugs cleaned up. Within 5 hours we could see the skyline of Sarasota on the horizon.



We'll put together some of our final thoughts on the trip in a few days when things have settled down... but for now we are happy to be home in Sarasota. We cruised from October 10th to November 29th with 12 days off in the middle for business -- 5-6 weeks of actual cruising traveling almost 2,000 miles! A dream fulfilled!

Nov 24-26 Florida No Wake Zones!

November 24th - Melbourne to Palm Beach

After leaving Melbourne on the morning of the 24th we entered the most built up section of the ICW from Palm Beach through Miami. The homes are lovely-- once again we were amazed by the wealth we'd seen on our trip down the ICW-- mile after mile of homes in the $2-5 million range! Where does all this money come from? We hope not sub-prime mortgages!

However the ICW through this area is called the "concrete canyon" because the concrete seawalls on all the huge waterfront homes reflect the boat wakes and turn the ICW into a choppy mess. The logical solution is to create "no wake zones" and require the boat to move at about 5 mph past these homes. Calm quiet for the homeowners but at that speed it makes for a long day if we're ever going to get to Sarasota! We slowed down and enjoyed the scenery but made up for the speed by cruising from dawn to dusk. Just about at dark we found a pretty anchorage in North Palm Beach and crashed for the evening!

Nov 25th - Palm Beach to Hallandale

Cruising slowly through Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and Ft. Lauderdale felt familiar-- we had vacationed in the area over the years. As car drivers we hated waiting at the draw bridges for the boats to pass... but now, as boaters, we had to pass under 26 bridges over a 2 day period. A few opened on request and we could fit under a few of the higher bridges (our "air draft" is 22 feet and it was tense passing under some bridges with a clearance of 23 feet!). But most bridges operate on a schedule and, if you miss an opening you have a 30 minute or more wait until the next opening. Boats don't have a "Park" setting on the transmission-- you need to use forward and reverse and spin the wheel back and forth to compensate for wind and currents while maintaining your spot near the bridge and avoid other boats -- tiring! By the end of the day we were happy to tie up at a marina, get a quick shower, and catch a taxi to Mass!

Nov 26th - Through Miami to the Keys!

We hadn't seen a skyline like this since early October in New York City! The morning was slow with a series of bridges and no wake zones... but Miami seemed to pass quickly and we were soon in Biscayne Bay heading for the Keys. Our dolphin friends joined us riding and jumping in our wake-- at times they almost seemed to be posing for a picture! The water temperature rose into the mid-80's and it turned a light aqua color. As we pulled into the marina at Plantation Key we immediately felt the relaxed culture of the Keys -- the dockhands chit-chatted with us for quite a while before bringing the fuel hose. We tied up tight, washed down the boat, changed clothes, and strolled hand-in-hand to a local restaurant for a great dinner-- fish for Marianne and ribs for Chris! It felt great to be in South Florida again!
Tomorrow we begin the long trip from the Keys to Sarasota past the Everglades and up the West coast...

Nov 23 - Melbourne Florida

Nov 23 -- Anchored in Melbourne Florida

It has been a busy few days! When we last wrote four days ago we had just entered Georgia... but we have traveled about 330 miles in the last 4 days by leaving before 7am and only stopping for the night around 4pm in time to get anchored before dark. Those long days are tiring because the ICW is shallow (often less than 8 feet -- we need 4 feet to float!) and winding back and forth through the salt marshes. We spend most of the day sitting next to each other on the bridge with Chris steering the boat and slowing down in the shallow areas when the depth alarm beeps and Marianne reading the cruising guides describing the sights and hazards in next few miles and planning the night's anchorage or marina. We enjoy anchoring many nights rather than tying up in a marina because we often have the anchorage to ourselves and we can chat, sip wine, watch TV, read, and catch up on email. However every few nights we head for a marina when we need fuel and we'll often go for a long walk and find a local restaurant for dinner.

The dolphins have been swimming along with us-- here you can see them jumping our wake. Some of the islands on the ICW have wild horses and some goats-- like this "goat island" -- makes us miss our Goat Island in Newport!

We've seen some lovely spots-- the anchorage on the Frederica River in Georgia was especially pretty-- and we've had some marina "adventures"-- last night we had to steer down a narrow channel and squeeze Pathfinder in between two huge megayachts next to the Chart House restaurant. As we came down the channel we kept asking the dockhand at the marina if he was sure we would fit-- we slid in with about 4 feet to spare! As we tied up the boat we looked up to see all the people eating their Thanksgiving dinner and clapping! We closed our blinds and sat down on board to a delicious turkey dinner that Marianne had planned.

It was a thrill to cruise through St. Augustine and see the lovely waterfront and the huge cross at the La Leche Shrine Marianne's parents had visited more than 60 years ago.

We traveled a total of 1,463 miles from Newport but we still have about 500 miles to go to get to Sarasota! It looks like the canal across Florida is too shallow due to the drought so we need to go all the way around the bottom of the state and up to Sarasota! We'll keep you posted!

Nov 19 - Back on the Waterway

November 16-19th
Just a quick update -- we're back on the ICW! We had to take a 12 day break while we opened up our Sarasota home and got some business done. We found a great place to tie up the boat -- Osprey Marina near Myrtle Beach, SC. We highly recommend this protected and inexpensive marina if you need to leave your boat for a while on the ICW.


On Friday November 16th we drove a rental car from Sarasota back to Myrtle Beach, SC and arrived at our boat about 9pm with fresh food and clean clothes. As we started down the ICW we saw this sign on someone's lawn-- almost half way!

One of our biggest surprises as we saw the USA at 10 mph was the plethora of waterfront real estate in North and South Carolina. We were amazed by the number of newly built -- and often empty and for sale -- homes along the waterway like these ones. We actually began to worry more about the news of the mortgage crisis and housing bust of 2007!

We were delighted to be welcomed to the warmer southern waters with many dolphin sightings-- they often swam in front of the boat and sometimes they swam along with us for quite a way.




When the dolphins weren't making waves the water was so calm that the sky was perfectly reflected in the water-- what a picture!


What a difference from the bouncy water in Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake. For the last few days the

waterway has been flat calm and winding through flat salt marshes.

We've anchored out for a couple of nights but stayed in Georgetown, SC on Saturday night to celebrate our wedding anniversary-- what a lovely town! The main street was one of the nicest we have seen-- a long street of distinctive shops and restaurants bordered by the harbor and lovely historical homes on canopy streets. Our marina was right downtown and while I was washing off the salt from the boat Marianne walked downtown and discovered the Goat Island Grille on Front Street --- a perfect spot for a romantic dinner since we began our cruise from our own Goat Island in Newport!

Tonight we crossed the state line into Georgia and dropped anchor in the Herb River-- getting closer to Florida!

Waiting out Hurricane Noel

Friday November 2
We tied up tightly at a marina watching the Weather Channel on our Satellite TV. Most of the coverage of Hurricane Noel mentioned winds gusting over 50 mph at Cape Lookout just east of us (we're at the X on the radar image to the right). We'd picked a good location to stay put for a day at the "Friendly City by the Sea"-- Swansboro's downtown was just one mile from our marina. We tied up Pathfinder with multiple spring lines and put out extra fenders with fender boards. Fortunately there wasn't any rain so we had a nice walk to the local post office and Walgreens to pick up a few supplies (and get some exercise).

We've been amazed at how busy we are each day-- it seems that there is always something to do! When we stop for the night we need to adjust the anchor or lines & fenders and wash the salt off the boat. Every few days we need to refuel and pumpout (yes, the "head" flushes into a holding tank that needs to be pumped out about every ten days). We spend the evenings cooking dinner or choosing a restaurant and then talking and planning the stops for the next few days, updating this blog and emailing/calling family and friends.

While the boat has had very few problems there are a few things that needed repair. After our walk downtown, Chris spent several hours adjusting the bilge pump switches, tightening some hatches, and preparing fender boards while Marianne walked downtown to pick up a few more supplies. The wind kept building and by 3pm it was so gusty that Chris told Marianne to wait downtown so he could pick her up in the marina's courtesy car (many marinas have a loaner car one can borrow for an hour). Only a few boats were moving on the ICW including this "pirate ship" we caught up with the next day. The boat was riding the storm well so we had the marina drop us at the Riverside Steakhouse, known for their sweet potato muffins. It was a great meal and the restaurant dropped us back at the marina for a windy night. The owner of the marina stopped by to give us his home number in case of problems-- but we made it through the night without a problem.

Saturday November 3

We started for Wrightsville Beach about 55 miles away at about 9:45 am but it turned out to be easy run thru Camp Lejuene (today they didn't close the ICW for live fire exercises!). We were excited to see porpoises swimming along with the boat-- the first we'd seen on the cruise. One of the challenges of the ICW can be passing under the bridges. We thought we would have a long delay when an upcoming bridge announced on the marine radio that they would be closed from 1-4pm for maintenance-- but we lucked out when, just as we arrived, the bridge needed to open for a test and we were one of the boats to slip through. Our only concern was that the storm delay had filled up the marinas and every one we called was full. Our cruising guides described a nice anchorage but it's always hard to know until you see it. In this case the guides were right-- what a delightful anchorage in a large cove surrounded by expensive homes and separated from the ocean and beach by a narrow barrier island. We settled in for a nice dinner on board.

Sunday November 4

At 7 am we took our dinghy ashore and tied up at the town dinghy dock then snapped this picture as we walked from the beach and ended up at St. Therese church fronting on the beach. After Mass we dinghied back to Pathfinder, up anchor and cruised past marshes, inlets, and endless new "McMansions" built along the ICW. As we crossed into South Carolina we remembered JFK's quote:

... all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean... We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea -- whether it is to sail or to watch it -- we are going back from whence we came." --JFK

North Carolina creeks and rivers

Tuesday October 30
We had a quiet morning in Coinjock because Chris had a conference call so we got a late start about 12:30pm and only went 35 miles to the Alligator River Marina-- a nice stopping place just past the Albemarle Sound. We'd heard scary stories when there was rough weather on the Albemarle but we had a delightful passage with no waves. We continued our routine of starting the day with a Hail Mary to Our Lady of the Sea and saying the Divine Mercy Rosary in the late morning. With the calm seas we were able to read and relax. We arrived 3.5 hours later and Andy from SeaDee was waiting on the dock to help us with our lines. This marina, at mile 85 of the intracoastal waterway, the only convenient marina in the area, is owned by "Miss Wanda" and her husband. They have about 20 slips and a Shell gas station on the main road to the Outer Banks. Rather than eating burgers at the gas station, Marianne cooked a nice dinner on board and we relaxed studying the cruising guides to plan the next few days. We were a bit concerned by the reports of a tropical storm in the Caribbean so we wanted to put some miles under the keel over the next couple of days.

Wednesday October 31

Happy Halloween! -- beginning our fourth week on the boat! We got a 7am start following a sailboat out of the marina just as the sun was rising over the Outer Banks in calm seas. North Carolina is lovely-- a mix of wide rivers and narrow canals like this one on the Pungo River. We cruised along with only occasional boat traffic. The weather was so calm that we went below and steered from there while we grilled hamburgers on the electric frying pan. Quite a change from the rough weather in the Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake!

We decided to take advantage of the great weather and push on to a pretty anchorage at mile 154 called Campbell Creek. This happened to be the same latitude as Cape Hatteras, the farthest south our insurance policy would allow us to go until November. SeaDee was right behind us and, shortly after dropping anchor, Andy and his friends rode their dinghy over to Pathfinder for drinks and conversation. That night Andy took a great picture of Pathfinder at sunset with our lights on--

This little creek was far enough from "civilization" that our cell phones didn't work... but we relaxed watching the bright stars overhead... and HBO on our satellite TV!
Thursday November 1
Waking up in the anchorage was delightful but we wanted to get an early start and run about 75 miles to Swansboro and tie up at a marina in case Hurricane Noel moved up the coast. It was a long but pleasant day-- the weather was beautiful and the seas were calm. It was especially fun to cruise past Beaufort, NC because we had stopped there during our car trip back to Newport last Spring. We arrived at the marina at 3pm and filled the fuel tanks (181 gallons of diesel burned over the last 22 hours since Portsmouth, VA). Swansboro is a great little town -- after being on the boat for two straight days it was nice to take a long walk downtown where we found an Irish pub for a quick dinner. We still had time to take a shower at the marina and still make All Saints Day Mass 7pm where the priest had a relic of the true Cross that he had received in the Vatican.