Pathfinder's Log - Trawler Cruising Blog

May 25-30, 2009 Portsmouth, VA - St. Michaels, MD

2009-06-01T21:17:00.026-04:00

We had always heard that the Chesapeake was an amazing cruising ground... but during our trip south in 2007 the weather and our schedule didn't allow us to explore some of the prime areas. This trip we reserved time to do some cruising and the weather cooperated!

The route from Portsmouth leads past the Norfolk Naval Base where the ships were flying their United States flags at half-mast in honor of Memorial Day.

We quickly crossed to the Hampton side of the harbor when we heard the Coast Guard announcing that a large cargo ship was entering the harbor and all boats needed to clear the channel for security reasons. I cranked up my laptop and connected the AIS receiver to display all large ships near us-- a great device since the cargo ship had not yet appeared on my radar. We were glad we were close enough to see the pretty lighthouse and old fort on the Hampton side of the harbor.

Several people had told us not to miss Yorktown-- about a four hour cruise from Portsmouth. The National Park Service had recently worked on the restoration of this colonial town where the British surrendered to George Washington ending the Revolutionary War. As we got close to the town we could see the monument to the victory. ... and the statue commemorating the surrender ceremony...

There is a marina on the riverfront that is very close to the town and on the route of the free shuttle that runs from the river to the battleground. Yorktown was a major port prior to the revolution partly because the river is so deep near the shore that large ships could easily unload on the wharf. In the picture below of Pathfinder at the marina, the water is 55 feet deep!

We spent two relaxing days in Yorktown and had the time to explore the battlegrounds and visitor centers. However, the wind shifted the second day and the boats in the marina were rocking and rolling with the waves. We decided to get an early start after the second night and left in foggy weather to head up the Chesapeake.
As we moved down the York river, the fog began to burn off but the waves picked up. The weather forecast was for one foot waves but we found ourselves heading into 3-4 foot seas with spray almost up to the bridge. We slowed down a bit so we wouldn't pound into the waves. Luckily, the seas settled down after about an hour and we turned into Reedville about noontime. We had planned to anchor for the night but found that there was no cellphone coverage for the conference call I had the next morning. By this time the weather was beautiful-- sunny with gentle winds -- so we decided to push on to Solomons Island. We knew this would end up being an eleven hour cruising day... but it would be nice to settle into a great marina for a few days. We arrived at the Spring Cove marina at 6pm and settled into the same slip we had occupied in 2007.

We decided to stay in Solomons Island for three days... a chance to get caught up on laundry, restock supplies at the nearby supermarket, enjoy some great meals at the local restaurants, and relax in the olympic-size pool. On Saturday we left for the 50 mile trip to St. Michaels-- one of the prime cruising spots in the Chesapeake. The cliffs behind the Cove Point lighthouse were beautiful in the morning light.

Our plan is to spend several days in St. Michaels then move on to Annapolis... we'll have a lot to tell you on the next entry!

May 19-24, 2009 Southport, NC to Portsmouth, VA

2009-05-26T20:53:00.013-04:00

After spending 3 days in Southport, NC and enjoying this lovely town and waiting for the weather to improve, on Wednesday May 20th we began moving north again through North Carolina towards Mile Zero of the Intracoastal Waterway in Norfolk, VA. The stormy weather did bring some wonderful sunsets.

Southport is at mile 309 at the edge of the Cape Fear river so we were pleased that the wind and waves had diminished and decided to cruise about 65 miles to a quiet anchorage near the Camp Lejeune Marine base at mile 244. The Mile Hammock anchorage is within a small basin dredged by the Marines for their drills and, while boats are allowed to anchor, no boater is allowed to go ashore. We were the second boat into the anchorage and began to watch the Marines practicing assaulting a derelict ship moored in the far corner of the basin and helicopter drills circling over the anchorage. Fortunately they stopped their activity by dinner time and we had a quiet evening with about ten other boats.

As we left the anchorage the next morning we passed through the area of the ICW sometimes used for live-fire exercises by the Marines. The warning sign flashes when the ICW is closed-- and you really want to obey that sign!

As you look across the canal and over the tanks used for target practice, one can see the ocean just a short distance away

As the ICW wound its way through North Carolina we moved through narrow canals cut to link large sounds.

These large bodies of water can get quite rough so we were happy the weather was still with us.

With the good cruising weather we decided to push on to the Campbell Creek anchorage at mile 154 (a 90 mile day!) where had spent Halloween 2007 on the way down to Florida. Below is the photo Andy Allen of SeaDee snapped of Pathfinder that night.

We got another early start with plans to stop at an anchorage just short of the Albemarle Sound in the Alligator River. As we moved through the narrow canals we would occasionally see a huge barge coming around the corner. In the photo below note the size of the trawler compared to the barge! We'd make a quick call to the barge on channel 13 and ask which side of the canal we should move to get out of their way!

Along most of the daymarks at the sides of the channel we saw hawks had built large nests

And we passed many watermen checking their crab traps

We arrived at the night's anchorage to a beautiful sunset

The next morning, May 23rd, we only had a short 30 mile trip to Coinjock, kind of a rest area on the ICW! Boats just pull over to the side of the narrow ICW and tie to a long dock. The attraction at Coinjock is a good restaurant famous for its 32 oz prime rib dinner. Chris ordered it and had plenty left over for another dinner the next day!

On May 24th we set out for the last 50 miles of the ICW to Portsmouth, VA. We knew we were back in civilization by the many bridges with restricted opening schedules. Several times we had to wait for a drawbridge to open on the hour, even though it was only 30 minutes from the prior bridge that opened on the hour. We also had to pass through the Great Bridge Lock to raise us 3 feet to the level of the Elizabeth river into Portsmouth/Norfolk. These locks are always a challenge because the wind can whip through them and shove the boat against the steel wall. After all the lock of the Okeechobee Waterway were we old hands and knew exactly what to do

After the lock we moved into the Portsmouth/Norfolk's large port area. The bridge in this picture is big!-- notice the boat of our size under the open span!

As we reached Mile Zero of the ICW we saw the familiar lightship on display... we traveled 965 from Fort Pierce in three weeks after our return from the Bahamas. Now on to the Chesapeake!

May 11-18, 2009 Jekyll Island, GA to Southport, NC

2009-05-18T20:37:00.015-04:00

We're writing this in North Carolina close to Cape Fear waiting for a "nor'easter" with 40 knot gale winds to pass through tonight.

Week #7 took us from the Florida border through Georgia and South Carolina into North Carolina traveling 364 miles (even with a two night stop in Charleston).

We started in sunny weather with temperatures in the 80s and ended the week with 50 degrees and gale force winds.

We battled with the biting green head horse flies through the salt marshes of Georgia and South Carolina.

We walked to Our Lady Star of the Sea church in North Myrtle Beach for Mass.

We had some wonderful dinners "home-cooked" on the boat as we watched the birds and dolphins near us.

We went out to eat at great restaurants in Charleston, Georgetown, Myrtle Beach and Southport.

One night we sat under the stars as the only boat in an isolated anchorage and the next night watched the moon rise over the only other boat within miles. Some of our favorite nights are when we drop anchor in a quiet spot away from other boats, sit on our "back porch" watching the birds swoop and the fish jump and the sunset... it gets so quiet and the stars shine so brightly... we feel like we're the only two people in the world.

We refueled at the picturesque harbor on Hilton Head Island with its striped lighthouse. We had visited this harbor two years ago when we drove the coastal route to scout for our boat trip... of course a 60 mile day on the boat is only one hour in the car so the stops seems much further apart!

We tied up at the Megadock in downtown Charleston. This city marina has 19,000 linear feet of dock space covering 40 acres... it is good exercise walking from one end of the dock to the other! We enjoyed our dinners at Hymans Seafood restaurant-- Chris went "southern" and ordered the grilled salmon over grits with brown gravy and bacon and cheese-- it was good! We had a great pizza that reminded us of our trip to Capri and Naples-- don't miss Monza Pizza if you're in Charleston!

At times seagulls followed closely at our stern diving for small fish kicked up by our wake.

We tied up at a marina right on the boardwalk in quaint Georgetown, SC and wandered hand-in-hand along the one main street looking in shop windows and examining the restaurant menus to choose the right spot for dinner. We had enjoyed the Goat Island Grill when we stopped here on our anniversary in 2007 so we decided to try Riverwalk for a change-- it was great!

After several weeks of great cruising weather, the forecast changed as a strong cold front moved into North Carolina. We carefully picked a secure marina just a short walk from a great little town with good stores and restaurants. Just like Newport after the Revolutionary War, Southport NC was so poor after the Civil War that they fixed up the old houses rather than tear them down so the streets are lined with interesting old homes. The only restaurant open on Sunday was The Pharmacy-- Marianne loved her crabcakes and Chris's duck was some of the best ever!

Now we're looking forward to week #8... depending on when this gale ends... we expect to travel the last 300 miles to Norfolk, VA. We're looking forward to exploring the Chesapeake before continuing on to Newport... as usual, we'll keep you posted!

May 4-10, 2009 - Fort Pierce to Jekyll Island

2009-05-10T18:59:00.018-04:00

Cruising is boat repair in exotic locations!

We were so happy to be back in the USA after a delightful crossing from the Bahamas on May 2nd (boats that crossed May 3rd had a rough passage!) and we were looking forward to week #6 of this cruise.

After Mass on Sunday May 3rd, we returned to the boat to find that the inverter had failed! A boat is like a car with plenty of 12 volt power to run the boat electronics and refrigerator. But if a boat has an inverter it creates regular house current from the batteries to run lights, stereos, TVs, water heater, ice maker, air conditioner, etc. While we have a generator to recharge the batteries and provide house current, the inverter is nice because we don't have the "hum" of the diesel engine of the generator. Unfortunately, the failed inverter meant we would have to run the main engine to charge our batteries and the generator to give house current.

The great news was that I called Mastervolt, the manufacturer of the inverter, and they had a really good mechanic, Louis Graham, at the boat Monday morning. It turned out that the boat had been wired wrong for the inverter... Louis knew exactly what was wrong (great to have a real professional working on the problem!) and corrected the wiring and Mastervolt covered the cost of the new inverter ($2,600) under warranty-- if you need an inverter for your boat you should get a Mastervolt-- they're good people!

We were lucky that the Fort Pierce Marina had a nice restaurant (with a great happy hour and excellent fish dinners) and a grocery store just a short walk away. We replenished our drinking water and cold cuts, worked out on the treadmill, and enjoyed sitting still for a few days! We liked walking past the sign for the "Smokin' Em" fishing boat (Marianne's childhood nickname was Em)!

So, after a delay of two days waiting for the replacement inverter, we restarted our cruise north on Wednesday May 6th and decided to do some long days to get through Florida and Georgia as fast as possible so we could spend more time in places like Charleston and the Chesapeake. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is measured in miles from Mile Zero at Norfolk VA, so it is easy to track your progress. Fort Pierce is at mile marker 965 and we made it to a pleasant anchorage near the Melbourne bridge at mile marker 918 on the first day-- we had stayed at the same anchorage on November 23, 2007 on our way to Sarasota!

After working out the next morning it was especially fun to hear our friend Andy Allen from SeaDee calling us on the marine radio as we passed his house on Merritt Island. At the northern tip of Merritt Island we were within 5 miles of the Kennedy Space Center and we could see the shuttle waiting to launch on May 11th-- too bad we were a week early. We're still hoping to have a great view from Georgia! We could easily see the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building, the largest one story building in the world!

We anchored in Rockhouse Creek at mile marker 842 near the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse-- the tallest lighthouse in Florida. We had a pretty view from our bridge of the lighthouse in the distance.

The next day, May 8th, we stopped after a couple of hours to add diesel fuel. Our tanks hold 300 gallons-- enough for about 50 hours when we run at 8.5 knots burning 6 gallons/hour. We run about 6 hours per day but like to fill up when the tanks are half full so we stop for fuel about every four days. That timing works well because we need to pump out our waste storage tank about every 5-6 days.

On Friday May 8th we cruised to mile marker 792 and anchored off Fort Matzanis National Monument-- one of the oldest forts in the United States dating back to colonial days. The moon rising over the fort was quite something!

While anchored in these salt marshes we had a surprise! On the trip to Florida in 2007 we never had a bug problem-- but we were traveling in November and needed the heat on some nights. This trip, it seems the biting horse flies found our boat and even seemed to find their way through some our screens... we decided to close the windows, turn on the generator, and sleep with the air conditioning running.

The next morning we passed through St. Augustine and saw the huge cross at the La Leche mission and the lovely striped lighthouse...

... and we stopped for the night at the Beach Marina in Jacksonville Beach at mile marker 742 where we could top up our fuel tanks, pump out, and walk 1.4 miles to Mass at St. Paul's. We had dinner at the local Carrabbas Grill just a few blocks from the church-- great meal but we've really been eating well onboard with the meals Marianne planned for our cruise.

We awoke on Mother's Day May 10th and decided to make a long run to Jekyll Island mile marker 673... not the greatest Mother's Day for Marianne but at least the marina delivered the Sunday newspaper before we left at 7am!

We wound through a continuing chain of salt marshes and unfortunately had to swat horse flies the whole way except when we were in the large expanses of the Cumberland River. The cruising guide noted that the passage near the Kings Bay nuclear sub base is closed whenever a nuclear sub is passing through the area. We were able to proceed but got a close view of the USS Florida, a Trident class nuclear submarine that has launched cruise missiles in combat. Note the security boat in the lower right of the photo-- if we had approached any closer they would have immediately told us to shut down our engines and blocked out passage.

As we left Florida and approached the Sea Island St. Simons Jekyll Island area ,we decided to pass up the ritzier spots and stay at a serene Georgia anchorage on the Frederika river. We were anchored by 3:30pm and settled in for a great home cooked meal and watched the finales of Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice.

During the coming week we should be able to make it through Georgia and much of South Carolina... we'll keep you posted!

Arpil 28 - May 3, 2009 Treasure Cay to Fort Pierce FL

2009-05-01T21:43:00.014-04:00

When we last wrote, we were in Marsh Harbour enjoying the "hub of the Abacos". Now, a week later, we're relaxing at a marina in Fort Pierce safely back in the USA.

As we were getting ready to leave Marsh Harbour, we were excited to notice a painting of Wanderer on the wall of the bar. We had met Jim and Fay of Wanderer in the Chesapeake in 2007 while they were on their way to the Abacos and enjoyed a pleasant cocktail hour with them on Wanderer in Norfolk listening to their experiences of 20 years of cruising the Intracoastal Waterway from Long Island to Hopetown. What fun to see a painting of their lovely boat in a peaceful anchorage!

On April 27th we decided to cruise the 2 hours to Treasure Cay-- known for one of the top five beaches in the world. It was also fun for us to know that Marianne's sister and her husband had spent a week at Treasure Cay almost 35 years ago! We anchored in a protected anchorage ("KI4SMH" in the picture below is my ham call sign) just off the resort docks where we could tie our dinghy, have a drink at the Tipsy Seagull bar with the "Go Cole Go" sign (Marianne's maiden name), swim in the pool, and walk a few minutes to the wonderful beach...

As we relaxed in Treasure Cay for two nights we kept an eye on the weather for crossing the Whale northbound-- once again "respecting the Whale".

On Thursday April 30th the forecast was good for the Whale so we raised anchor and began heading north. The forecasts were accurate and we continued about five hours to Alans-Pensacola anchorage where there were only four other boats and a perfect sunset...

As we watched the sunset we got a text message (yes, my GSM cellphone had a signal even here!) from that our daughter, Katie, was in labor-- we called and were able to speak to her at the hospital! As we watched some of the most amazing stars we had ever seen I thought this would be the perfect time to smoke the Graycliff Bahamian cigar I had purchased at Nippers in honor of our fourth grandchild-- Edward Rene Desjardins (Teddy)! The cigar was perfect for this special occasion-- on a trip to Nassau Marianne and I had met the Graycliff owner, Enrico Garzaroli, and, after an amazing wine tasting in his winecellar, he walked us through his cigar factory-- a small room where four women were handrolling cigars under the watchful eye of the head cigar roller who had worked for Fidel Castro before Enrico hired him away!

We awoke on Friday May 1st expecting to have a short day cruising to Great Sale Cay... but we talked with our weather guru, Chris Parker, over the SSB radio and he said Saturday would be the best day to cross from West End to Florida. So we quickly raised the anchor and cruised nine hours to West End. Fortunately, the seas were calm and we had a pleasant day watching the course, saying the Rosary, and playing Scrabble (Marianne won!). We arrived at the Old Bahama Bay marina at 5pm and were able to top up our fuel tanks before a short squall washed the salt off our boat. We had no trouble backing into our slip and picked up take out Cracked Conch dinners from the resort restaurant... Pathfinder looks pretty at night in the marina!

We set the alarm to wake up on May 2nd at 6am and found the winds and seas calm so we set out for Lake Worth 54 miles away. After one hour, as we entered the Gulf Stream, we saw the water temperature go from 82 degrees to 89 degrees and the seas settled down to almost flat. We changed our course for Stuart (66 miles away) saving a half day's travel on the ICW. As we left Bahama waters, I removed the Bahamas flag from our starboard halyard (below) and put up the "Q" flag for quarantine once we entered the USA...

About 25 miles from Stuart we were hailed by the Coast Guard. They were stopping all boats heading the Florida and asked if we were a US Flag vessel (which gives them the right to board us anywhere in the world), our documentation number, the owner's name and birthdate, and if we had any guns on board (Yes!)

Fortunately the seas were calm as we needed to wait 45 minutes at idle until two officers boarded us for a "safety inspection"-- their excuse to keep an eye out for terrorists and drug runners. With this delay and the calm seas we decided to change our course for Fort Pierce (80 miles from West End) as the Gulf Stream would give us a better push than if we headed for Stuart. As we motored we suddenly saw a large black fin sticking out of the water slowly moving towards us-- a ten foot shark!

We were glad we hadn't decided to stop for a quick swim! Shortly afterwards we saw eight dolphin swimming towards us and they turned and "escorted" us for a few minutes...

The seas remained calm and we arrived in Fort Pierce about 4pm, tied up at the Harbortown Marina, and called the Border Patrol to clear customs-- we had prepared by signing up for the Local Boaters Option program when we were in Sarasota so we didn't have to visit the Customs office at the airport.

Now that we're back in the USA with free cellphone minutes we'll be more in touch. We now turn north towards our summer home of Newport RI-- we'll keep you posted!

April 25-27, 2009 - Hopetown to Marsh Harbour

2009-04-26T19:36:00.013-04:00

We've spent a delightful four days relaxing in Hopetown. After tying up our dinghy at the public dock we would walk up Queens Highway...

... past the breadfruit tree brought from Tahiti by Captain Bligh on HMS Bounty after the mutiny...

... and we would stop in an internet cafe or bar (depending on the time of day!) to check email and work on the blog...

As much as we loved Hopetown we wanted to be in Marsh Harbour for the weekend as we knew there was a nice Catholic church close to the harbor. The days continued to be quite windy (20-25 knot easterlies) but the short 8 mile trip was downwind so we left Hopetown at 10:30am and we were tied up at the Marsh Harbour Marina at noon.

We decided to walk the two miles into town and were excited to see Johnny Cake Lane since Marianne's real Rhode Island johnnycakes are our grandchildren's favorite breakfast!

On Sunday morning we took a taxi to church... You use the marine radio on channel 06 to call a taxi and they respond immediately. The church was about 10 minutes from the marina, a pretty building completely open-air, with a plaque to Our Lady of Charity Queen of Cuba...

... three crosses set on the rocky hillside...

... and Jesus on a crucifix made of driftwood...

... and the usual rousing choir! We loved the service! After taking the taxi back to the marina we settled in for another couple of relaxing days. This is as far south as we'll go so over the next week we'll gradually work our way back up the Sea of Abaco, through the Whale, across the Little Bahama Bank and position ourselves for the crossing back to Florida. The timing will be right because we will have almost finished our supply of books: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Outliers, Gilead, Team of Rivals, Mary's Voyage, The First Daughter, and Shadow Command

April 20-24, 2009 Sea of Abacos

2009-04-23T13:50:00.024-04:00

We’re now in Marsh Harbour, the hub of the Abacos, as we look back on week #4 of this trip.

On Monday April 20th we were “respecting the Whale”— waiting in Green Turtle Cay for the seas to settle down so we could go south through the Whale Cay passage – the most dangerous passage in the north Bahamas. We listened to the marine radio for the 8:15 am Cruisers Net and heard a 50 foot motor yacht in the Whale saying it “wasn’t too bad” so we decided to “stick our nose out” and see for ourselves. As we left our calm mooring in Black Sound we found it more windy than we expected but the seas weren’t too rough. We motored the 20 minutes towards the Whale and passed two other boats that had completed the passage northbound—they also told us it wasn’t too rough. We continued towards the narrow passage where the seas should be the worst… and found them quite manageable. We kept going and within 30 minutes were safely into the Sea of Abaco heading for Great Guana Cay.

This island is one of the most popular destinations in the Abacos for two reasons—the long, deserted beach facing the Atlantic Ocean and Nippers, the famous bar on the bluff overlooking the ocean. We got a slip at Orchid marina—the only one on the island but it wasn’t as protected as it looked on the charts and we were rocking quite a bit so we ended up spending more time at Nippers—not a bad thing as we took a walk past the painted tractor to the bluff overlooking the ocean, talked to family on the Skype phone, had a dinner of cracked conch and conch fritters and took a long walk on the beautiful beach. We settled down after sunset and were rocked to sleep.

On Tuesday April 21st, with the boat still rocking in the slip, we decided to cruise the ten miles to Hopetown—the favorite harbor of most cruisers. Just as we saw the famous striped Hopetown lighthouse in the distance we used our radar to watch some of the squalls leading the cold front sweeping east from Florida—a couple of large squalls passed north and south of us but a small squall hit just as we entered Hopetown harbor and washed all the salt off the boat! We picked up a mooring in the west end of one of the most beautiful harbors in the Abacos.

The next four days we really felt we were living our dream—relaxing on the boat with a simple breakfast of coffee and homemade raisin bread we bought at a local bakery, working out on the treadmill, dinghy to the public docks and walking to the beach for a swim, exploring the charming streets and stopping in a coffee shop or bar for a drink then back to the boat to relax and read and, at sunset as the conch horns were blown, watched the incredible light show as the stars came out brighter than we'd ever seen them.

Here are some pictures of the lovely spots we saw in Hopetown:

April 13-19, 2009 - West End to Green Turtle Cay

2009-04-22T11:26:00.011-04:00

As we update our blog, relaxing in Hopetown harbor on Elbow Cay on April 22nd, you can tell we’re getting on “Bahamas time”—it has been 10 days since we’ve written!

When we last wrote we had just finished our second week of this trip with an Easter brunch on board and a relaxing day at the pool and walking the beach. We began our third week at West End waiting for the forecasted storms to pass for the cruise across Little Bahama Bank to the Abacos. A relaxing cruise depends on good weather so we start each morning checking the weather to decide whether to move on or to just spend the day enjoying our current location.

Our days in West End were all the more enjoyable because of the friends we made in the marina. We had dinners with Craig and Julie from Lady J and even took their dinghy to an adjacent cay for some snorkeling. Keith and Jeannie on Mucho Gusto hosted a “happy hour” on their catamaran bringing together a dozen cruisers—some departing after a month or season in the Abacos with many great stories and must-see spots. As the sky darkened we all raced “home” to wait out the approaching squall.

On Wednesday April 15th the weather cleared and we topped up our fuel tanks and left with Lady J for the 54 miles trip to Great Sale Cay—a small uninhabited island with a protected harbor about halfway to the Abacos. After an easy six hour cruise we arrived at 2pm—the first two boats in the anchorage. We dropped anchor in crystal clear ten foot water and watched it dig into the white sand. I jumped overboard with my mask and snorkel to double check the anchor and we lowered our dinghies to explore the lovely beach
On Thursday April 16th we had to say our sad goodbyes to our new friends on Lady J. Craig and Julie were going to cruise the local cays for a few days then return to the USA while we still had another 80 miles to get to the Sea of Abaco. After working out on our treadmill we set our course for Powell Cay an easy 48 miles and were excited to hear our friends Wink and Wilma aboard their lovely Great Harbour 47 MV John Henry returning to the USA after six months in the Abacos. They had been at a slip opposite us in Sarasota in early 2008 and are good friends with Andy on SeaDee, our “buddy boat” for some of the 2007 trip. It is really a small world! We arrived at Powell Cay at 3pm in time to play some bridge before dinner.

Respecting the Whale!
On Friday April 17th we traveled on 12 miles to Green Turtle Cay and picked up a mooring in Black Sound. This cay, 3 miles long and ½ mile wide with a few hundred residents marks the beginning of the Abacos and is just north of Whale Cay passage through which boats must pass to reach the Sea of Abaco. This passage is well known for the “rage” as ocean waves meet the shallow water and break across the passage. It can be quite dangerous in the wrong weather—a few years ago a 165 foot freighter was capsized in 30 foot seas! We spent several days in Green Turtle Cay “respecting the Whale” and waiting for good weather. Every morning at 8:15am the cruisers get together on the radio and discuss the weather and the Whale passage.

Black Sound is a very protected harbor next to the village of New Plymouth—the Abacos were settled by British Loyalists who fled the USA after the American Revolution. This Bahamian village has pastel colored houses

lining the streets wide enough for two golf carts to pass, a bank open for two hours twice a week, a couple of general stores, several churches, and an attack chicken. We took our dinghy over to the public dock at New Plymouth and wandered through the streets. One day we continued to White Sound, the other protected harbor on the island and had a wonderful lunch of cracked conch at the Green Turtle Club.

On Sunday we dressed in our church clothes and dinghied to the church in New Plymouth where we were treated to another moving Bahamian service with island music, confirmation of 12 kids from three local islands, and a rousing sermon—the service lasted 2.5 hours! What a great end to our third week on the boat!

April 11-12, 2009 - Crossing the Gulf Stream

2009-04-12T21:37:00.016-04:00

After crossing Florida through Lake Okeechobee and waiting almost a week, we finally had the "weather window" to cross from Palm Beach's Lake Worth Inlet to West End Grand Bahama Island.

We woke at 5am to check weather and were anxious to get started! We had coffee and ginger snaps and started the engine at 6:15am-- it was still quite dark but the winds were calm. We left the slip at 6:30 just as we could see the channel markers and started out Lake Worth Inlet-- only to see a huge ship coming towards us down the channel! We moved way over to the side of the channel and kept going.

About 2 miles out we found the seas a bit choppier than predicted but choose to continue. It was exciting to see the depth sounder go from 30' to 100' to 500' to 1,000' and finally to be in water so deep the depth sounder couldn't detect the bottom. There wasn't much boat traffic-- a few fast fishing boats passed us early but we saw only one other big ship. The waves continued to get more confused and at the half point after three hours we were bouncing quite a bit. But we both felt OK and, while a bit uncomfortable, we were perfectly safe.

We looked back to see another Mainship 400 -- Lady J slowing gaining on us. We called them on the radio and found they were also crossing for the first time and headed for West End.

After 4 hours we were really bouncing... we hung on, said our rosary together, and happily watched the "miles to go" winding down... only 15 miles to go... only 10 miles to go... at 8 miles out we saw tower and a few buildings ahead-- Land Ho! At 1pm about one mile from land the water suddenly changed to a beautiful aqua color and we moved into the calm behind the breakwater of the Old Bahama Bay Marina Resort.

It is a lovely marina with adjacent hotel rooms and several nice restaurants. We tied up in our slip and cleared customs right next to the marina office. There was a gentle warm breeze blowing through the palm trees and the sound of a island band playing near the large pool.

After a relaxing swim we met up with Julie & Craig from Lady J for the Cracked Conch dinner special at one of the resort restaurants. Just before bedtime, as we watched the bright stars overhead, a steel drum band in full costume marched through the marina!

We woke early to catch a short ride on the hotel shuttle to St. Michael's R.C. Church in West End village for 8:30 Mass. What an amazing Easter celebration! It's a small Bahamian church with a joyful, friendly, God-filled congregation-- at the exchange of the Peace people moved around the church eventually shaking hands with every other person in the church! The music was wonderful with hymns we hadn't heard before-- "I got raised!" and "He's alive and everything is going to be alright" -- Marianne wishes she could go to this church every week!

Back on the boat after Mass, we had an Easter brunch of banana pancakes and island fruit-- we ate at the small table on our upper deck and could barely remember the bouncy crossing. We had a relaxing afternoon-- walking the beach, swimming in the pool, visiting our new friends on Lady J. and enjoying another dinner together.

April 5-10, 2009 - Waiting for a weather window

2009-04-08T21:32:00.012-04:00

After an interesting 225 mile trip from Sarasota on the west coast of Florida across Lake Okeechobee to Stuart on the east coast, we picked up a mooring at the Sunset Bay Anchorage in Stuart and settled in to await a "weather window".

The next leg of our trip will take us from the east coast of Florida across the Gulf Stream to Grand Bahama Island-- Pathfinder's first trip to another country! While the actual distance from Lake Worth Inlet to West End is only 54 miles, in the wrong weather the seas can kick up to waves over 12 feet! The rules are fairly simple-- one wants 2 days of 10-15 mph winds (or less) from the south before the crossing. The worst case is strong winds from the north because they "bump" against the Gulf Stream moving from the south and the waves get big.

We studied several different websites for wind forecasts-- SailFlow, Weather Underground, and NOAA. We also subscribed to a private weather service from Chris Parker-- everyone morning he gives forecasts over Single Sideband Radio from the Virgin Islands. His sponsoring vessels can call him on the radio and ask for wind and wave conditions on their day's passage. It is fun just to listen to the boaters-- today I heard requests for information for passages from as far north as the Chesapeake and as far south as Grand Cayman.

We had arrived in Stuart on Saturday April 4 too late for the weather window on Sunday April 5. All the websites agreed that the next weather window would be Saturday April 11. No problem-- we purposefully planned this trip without schedules so we would never feel pressure to move when the weather was poor.

So we settled in for a great week around Stuart and Palm Beach. We had four days in Stuart-- two of them in calm seas and two with high winds and bouncy waves. During the calm days we spent most of the time onboard reading and relaxing. During the windy days we took long walks and saw two good movies (Duplicity and I Love You Man). We found some great restaurants within a short walk-- The Ashley (in the 1920s the building was the local bank robbed by the Ashley gang) serves a delicious 3 course early bird dinner for $15.95, the Osceola Cafe has great sandwiches and salads, and Dos Amigos is known as the best Mexican restaurant on the coast. Then back to the boat for the beautiful sunsets! The marina loaned us bikes to ride to Palm Sunday Mass and to ride to the grocery store for a few supplies.

On Thursday we cruised 30 miles south on the Intracoastal Waterway to position ourselves at the Lake Worth Inlet for the crossing to the Bahamas. We topped up the fuel (we used 184 gallons in the 255 mile trip from Sarasota), pumped out, and gave the boat a good scrubbing.

If the weather holds we'll leave early Saturday morning for the Bahamas and should clear customs and be tied safely at the Old Bahama marina at the west end of Grand Bahama island by mid-afternoon. We'll keep you posted!

April 1-7, 2009 From Sarasota to Stuart, FL

2009-04-01T19:32:00.018-04:00

April 1, 2009 Sarasota to Captiva

After a series of last minute shopping and car repairs we finally closed up the condo and moved aboard Pathfinder again on the evening of March 31st. We celebrated with a Tapas dinner at Ceviche just a short walk from the boat.

We had spent the previous three weeks stocking the boat so we could be self-sufficient in the Bahamas and spend most of the time anchored out. Many runs to Sams Club to get drinking water, coffee, breakfast bars, wine, vodka, tonic water, and many cans of soup, tuna, chicken, chili, and ham. We filled the second stateroom with our supplies and during the last two days stocked the refrigerator and freezer with hamburg, cold cuts, vegetables, etc. We can survive on our own for a couple of months!

After checking the oil and starting the engine at 7am we gathered our dock lines and left our slip at 7:20 am to head out Big Pass on our way to Captiva Island. The Gulf of Mexico was a bit choppy so we decided to head into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Venice Inlet and turned south in calm waters with dolphins swimming of our bow.

We quickly fell back into our cruising routine-- Chris had made the coffee the night before and set it to start perking at 6:30 am; breakfast is coffee and a breakfast bar and we're off. After we're away from the dock we move to the bridge and say Hail Mary to Our Lady of the Sea. We take turns at the wheel and watch the chart and study the cruising guide describing various navigation hazards, bridges, and locks. We can usually use the auto-pilot to steer but need to keep watch for other boats and crabpots. By mid-morning Marianne goes below to make wraps for lunch and after lunch we say the Rosary. By 2pm we're deciding where to stay for the night and try to be anchored by 3pm so we can cleanup the boat and relax for a while before starting dinner. After dinner we'll watch the sunset from the upper deck, explore in the dinghy, talk, read, watch TV (we have a satellite receiver with 200 channels!), and settle in early for an early start the next day.

By mid-afternoon we were passing Captiva Island and decided to anchor near Tween Waters. As sometimes happens, it took four tries to get our anchor to hold-- tiring after 7 hours of cruising! It was great to settle in for a nice dinner onboard and a good night's sleep!

April 2, 2009 Captiva to Ortona Lock

We pulled up our anchor at 7am and cruised in gentle seas past Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers up the Caloosahatchee River to join the Okeechobee Waterway. This 144 mile long waterway crosses Florida from Ft. Myers to Stuart. In the middle is Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake entirely contained within the continental U.S.-- it is half the size of Rhode Island and about 13 feet above sea level. To cross we'll need to pass through three locks to raise us 13 feet up from sea level before crossing the lake then through two more locks to drop us back to sea level. The process is straightforward but nerve-wracking because, when the big gates open we need to carefully steer the boat in between the high walls of the lock and grab some ropes hanging down from the sides. If there is any kind of wind it funnels down into the lock and pushes the boat around so it is tough to get close enough to grab the lines without banging into the sides. Then hold on tightly as the gates behind us close and the water level in the lock begins to rise or drop at a rate of about one foot/minute. Once we've reached the proper level the front gates open and we let go of the ropes and carefully motor out of the lock.

One of the cruising guides recommended stopping at a small marina dock near the Ortona Lock about 47 miles from Ft. Myers-- but when we arrived there about 3pm the entire dock was taken by a large ship. The second choice of the cruising guide was to proceed to the lock and tie up to the "dolphins" -- large pilings on the side of the canal. The only thing not mentioned in the cruising guide was that the dolphins were covered in tar! As we tried to tie up we quickly had sticky tar on the boat railings, lines and deck... what a mess! We moved to the other side of the canal and dropped anchor and spent an hour cleaning the tar off the boat! Another tough end to a long day!

April 3, 2009 Ortona Lock to Clewiston

We pulled our anchors (we had set two to hold us in the canal) at 7am and passed through the Ortona Lock for the 30 mile 4 hour trip to Clewiston. The forecast was for high winds in the afternoon so we decided to stay

at the one marina in Clewiston and cross the lake the next day. The canal is all fresh water by now and passes through cattle ranches. You can see the cow in the canal as the fishing boat passes us. The wind was really blowing as we entered the last lock of the day and it took all our strength to hold us in place and the water level rose.

We arrived in Clewiston and turned down the narrow channel to the end of the long dock. All the boats tie up to the same long dock and, as the first boat in, we got the position farthest down the dock. This was great for a good night's sleep as the Tiki Bar with the live band was farther away from us... but tough in the morning because we needed to wait until most of the boats behind had left, then carefully spin Pathfinder in the narrow channel and head out to the lake.

April 4, 2009 Across Lake Okeechobee to Stuart

We couldn't leave the marina until 8:30 am because the late-night revelers in the boats behind us slept in a bit. Once the marina cleared we moved onto the lake and were happy to see that it was relatively calm. The only excitement was seeing the alligators on the side of the canal as we passed. The 25 mile crossing was easy but strange to be completely out of sight of land while in the middle of Florida! When we got to the west shore we still had 32 miles to go to Stuart but passage through both locks went well and we arrived in Stuart about 3:30pm.

We found a nice mooring field near downtown Stuart with loaner bikes to ride to Mass or downtown for only $12.50/night! After checking the weather for crossing to the Bahamas and finding that we would probably have to wait until Friday or Saturday for the required light south winds we decided to stay in Stuart for a few days and enjoy the restaurants and take in a movie.

March 29, 2009 -- Cruising again!!

2009-03-29T19:20:00.001-04:00

Marianne & Chris are going to start cruising again!

You may remember that we arrived in Sarasota, FL at the end of November 2007 after a wonderful 2,000 mile trip from Newport, RI down the East Coast, around the bottom of Florida, and up to Sarasota on our 40 foot trawler, Pathfinder (you can read about that trip in our blog archives). We've enjoyed cruising the Sarasota area around our winter home but we're excited to get out on the water again for an extended cruise.

Our plan is to leave Sarasota the end of March and head south to Ft. Myers then across Florida via the Okeechobee waterway to Palm Beach.

We'll wait in Palm Beach for a "weather window" -- 2-3 days of light south winds. Then we'll cross the Gulf Stream (Pathfinder's first real open ocean crossing!) to the Bahamas where we'll clear customs and spend the month of April cruising the Abacos including Marsh Harbour and Hopetown.

We're looking forward to a month with no schedule... just anchoring off a tropical island enjoying "island life" -- swimming, exploring the beaches in our dinghy, fishing, reading, working out (we put a treadmill aboard!), and enjoying time together. We plan to anchor out during the week then head to one of the many marinas on the weekend for Mass and some restaurant dining. When we're in a marina for a few nights we'll have limited access to cell phones and internet for email and Skype to update this blog and catch up with family and friends. When we're anchored out we should still be able to keep in touch via Ham radio email.

In early May we'll head back to Florida and turn north for Newport on the Intracoastal Waterway. This will be the reverse of the route we cruised in 2007 so we've already got some must-see sights picked out. We're going to take our time and hope to arrive in Newport sometime in early July.

This is a trip we've talked about for years and finally have been able to free up the time. Over the next several months we'll share our thoughts, photos, and adventures via this blog-- we hope you enjoy it!

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

2007-11-30T12:51:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-11-28T21:10:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-23T17:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-19T18:56:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-03T21:29:00.001-04:00

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

2007-11-01T21:29:00.000-04:00

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.

The real Intracoastal Waterway

2007-10-29T20:22:00.000-04:00

Monday October 29
It was a treat to visit Sunday evening with Jim & Fay Mack on Wanderer-- we had talked on the radio but never been aboard their lovely boat. They had a lot of experience to share with us as they've been doing this trip for almost 20 years and they spend each winter aboard in the Abacos, Bahamas. But after spending two days at the Tidewater marina in Portsmouth, VA at Mile Zero of the Intracoastal Waterway the 30 knot winds settled down to 20 knots, and we decided to do the 50 mile run to Coinjock, NC. This can be a slow run because there are 7 bridges and one lock (our first!) The bridges were easy except when we had 26 boats all waiting in a narrow canal for one bridge to open and trying to hold their positions with the wind and current (some bridges only open on the hour). We didn't have to worry too much about depth in the ICW because we were following the yacht Grand Luxe (228 feet long and 63 feet high) so we knew they had deep water and that the bridges would stay open for them. She is a floating art gallery that travels up and down the east coast hosting events. However it was a little scary when that huge ship joined us in our very first lock designed to lower us about 3 feet to the level of the Virginia Cut.

After the bridge traffic settled down we cruised along at 8.5 knots through some pretty salt marshes in a narrow canal. This was so much easier than the rough rides down Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake that we felt we could really relax and enjoy the ICW. We had purchased the "triptik" type book Chartracker that guides boats down the ICW mile-by-mile so we could easily follow how far we'd traveled and how far we still had to go.

SeaDee started out from Portsmouth just behind us but couldn't fit in the lock with us and Grand Luxe so they arrived at Coinjock about an hour after us. We hadn't expected to see our friends on Rosetta since they'd left Portsmouth the day before-- but Coinjock is a narrow canal with a marina on each side so we could only wave to them as we tied up on the long dock on the opposite side. Coinjock Marina is known for its 32 oz. Prime Rib-- delicious with enough left over for a roast beef sandwich tomorrow!

Chesapeake can be rough!

2007-10-27T22:33:00.000-04:00

Wednesday Oct 24 - Saturday Oct 27
We arrived in Deltaville on Wednesday afternoon expecting to leave on Thursday morning... but cruising is controlled by the weather so when the forecast for Thursday was small craft warnings and winds gusting to 30 knots we decided to wait an extra day... which turned into waiting three days as the storm front stalled over Deltaville!

So what do you do for 3 days in Deltaville (population 800)? We made good use of the time-- made some new friends, Geoff and Pepper on Rosetta, and talked on the radio with Andy on SeaDee and Jim and Fay on Wanderer who were anchored in a harbor close by. Our boat is comfortable and we have both heat and air conditioning... and our KVH Satellite TV antenna worked perfectly so we had 200 channels of DirecTV to watch in the rain storms. Even though our Sprint cell phones had no signal we had a strong WiFi Internet connection from our marina so we could do email and use our Skype phone to talk to family and friends (this Skype phone is great-- it looks like a cellphone but it searches for WiFi connections and links to Skype where for $3/month you have unlimited calling to any phone in the USA). I started to re-read Chesapeake by Michener and was at the part when he tells how, while exploring the Chesapeake from Jamestown in 1608 , Captain John Smith was stung by a stingray and he had his sailors dig a grave for him and he sat in it waiting to die... then when he got better he ate the stingray! It turns out that our marina was located on Stingray Point and we walked out to where the grave was dug!

Our marina had a "courtesy car" free to use for one hour so we went out to lunch each day to the lunch spot where all the locals dined-- great burgers and onion rings! For dinner the local restaurants will pick you up at your marina and return you after dinner-- a nice way to see some other spots. Our driver was the owner of the restaurant-- he'd lived in Deltaville all his life and tried several different businesses before settling on the restaurant, marina, and selling "aqua homes" -- floating one bedroom cottages.

But the storm continued for 3 days-- heavy rain, high winds-- and everyone in the marina got tired of the wet and the waiting. When the Saturday forecast was for a break in the weather everyone began to get shipshape in preparation for a rough ride-- putting away lamps, clearing counters, and securing chairs so they don't tip. We ended up with a "fleet" of five boats-- BettyB, SeaDee, Rosetta, Wanderer, and Pathfinder all cruising the 55 nautical miles to Portsmouth, VA within 5 miles of each other. We kept in touch on the marine radio with encouragement for each other because it was rough! We were pounding into 4-5 foot seas with winds of 20-25 knots taking spray off our bow all the way to the top of the bimini. We needed to hang on and brace ourselves as the boat pitched and rolled. Fellow "fleet" members who had done this trip many times said it was some of the roughest weather they'd face. Fortunately, about 2 hours into the trip the last of the storm clouds swept past and the seas settled down to 2-3 feet and we were able to pick up speed. Entry into the major naval and commercial port of Norfolk, VA was a nice distraction -- we passed several large aircraft carriers and Andy on SeaDee reported he had 72 commercial vessels tracking on his AIS display.

By the time we reached the marina the sun was out, we broke out the Pusser Painkillers and relaxed in our chairs in the upper deck then had a wonderful dinner at Cafe Europa in the lovely Old Town section of Portsmouth. We loved walking around Portsmouth and enjoyed seeing the maritime museumincluding the old Portsmouth lightship now firmly moored ashore on the river walk.

We found a nice church for Sunday Mass and we walked all around Old Town... knew we were now in the south by the southern hospitality and the confederate statues!

Down the Chesapeake to Virginia

2007-10-24T15:18:00.000-04:00

Today we crossed into Virginia and tied up in Deltaville just before a storm hit. The picture on the right is from our GPS chartplotter that we use to track our position. The bottom half of the screen is the nautical chart showing depths and you can see the image of our boat in the middle going between red and green buoys. The little box on the left shows the autopilot is steering a course of 198 degrees and we have 10.8 nautical miles to go on this leg for another hour and 15 minutes. The top screen is the radar image of our boat surrounded by a small rain storm 2 miles around us. Cool, huh? Let me recap the last couple of days--

Monday October 22

We left Annapolis after a relaxing 4 day stay for the 6 hour cruise to Solomon's Island-- a real cruising center. SeaDee traveled down with us and we had a wonderful dinner at a local seafood restaurant with a couple Andy knew, Claus & Betty, who happened to be in the same port on Moonbeam. One of the joys of cruising is getting to know other cruisers-- we're really enjoying the social life! And being close to nature is wonderful-- as the sunrise to the right shows! We waited out a day of very windy weather and scrubbed Pathfinder from top to bottom and did three loads of laundry before taking a dip in the marina pool and heading out for a long walk and crabcakes at a local restaurant.

Wednesday October 24

We got an early start for the 6 hour cruise to Deltaville, VA. As we left Solomon's Island we cruised past a naval air base where fighter jets were doing "touch & go". A naval vessel also steamed passed us... on the radio this one's call sign was "Warship 72".

We're just getting settled in Deltaville. As soon as I finish this blog and Marianne finishes her book we're going to head into town for dinner. Next stop-- Portsmouth, VA and the official start of the Intracoastal Waterway and "Mile Zero"

Annapolis MD

2007-10-20T21:40:00.000-04:00

Thursday October 18

We awoke in the delightful Bohemia River anchorage at the north end of the Chesapeake surrounded by thick fog. So we relaxed for a few hours and started for Annapolis about 10:30am when the fog cleared. Our new friend, Andy Allen, on SeaDee was anchored close by and led the way out of the anchorage. By 3:30pm we were hanging on a mooring in downtown Annapolis.

Friday October 19 through Sunday October 21

Annapolis has been wonderful! After bouncing around in the outside mooring area near the Naval Academy the first night we moved to the inner harbor up Spa Creek and it was so peaceful we decided to stay another three nights!

We love Annapolis-- they've done a nice job of providing for the transient boater with dinghy docks at the foot of almost every street and moorings only $25/night. We've enjoyed taking long walks through the colonial streets and sampling the many restaurants. The first night we had great crab cakes and ribs at Buddy's (it was so good we went back for lunch on Sunday!) The second day lunch was at Pusser's-- the same restaurant we enjoyed when we chartered in the Virgin Islands. The Painkillers (made from pineapple and orange juice with Pusser's British Navy Rum) were as good as they were in Tortola!

St. Mary's church is a short walk from the dinghy dock closest to our mooring (we took this picture from our dinghy). It is a beautiful structure with rolling lawns down to the harbor built on the property of Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. We'll definitely plan to stay several days in Annapolis when we pass again next Spring!

Through New York to the Chesapeake

2007-10-18T22:59:00.000-04:00

How thrilling to cruise down the East River, through the infamous Hell Gate, past Manhattan, to see the Statue of Liberty appear ahead of us! We had stayed two days at City Island NY to wait out some very windy weather then headed under the Throgs Neck Bridge on Saturday morning timing our departure to arrive in Hell Gate at slack water so we wouldn't have to fight the dangerous 5 knot current. It was amazing to cruise past all the well known skyscrapers on Manhattan Island but seeing the Statue of Liberty ahead of us was a highlight of our trip so far! After cruising close to Liberty Island we headed under the Verazzano Narrows bridge to Atlantic Highlands NJ for the night... cheap diesel fuel but difficult slips to back into!

Sunday October 14
Sunday morning we left at 8am for our first "offshore" passage-- about 60 miles down the NJ coast to Atlantic City. The sea was calm but it was the first time we were really in the Atlantic Ocean with water as far as we could see around us except a small strip of the low NJ coast 5 miles off our starboard side. The NJ shore was unexpected —sandy beach and beach homes for hours and hours. Not much to do on the bridge except dodge the occasional fishing boat. We talked, read, prayed the Rosary, and listened to Jimmy & Julie's Wedding CD. About 30 miles from Atlantic City we saw the huge casinos appear on the horizon teasing us for the last 3 hours of the cruise. We pulled into Trump Marina at 4pm and Rosie was sweet enough to call us with the location of a 6:30pm Mass close by at Our Lady Star of the Sea. After Mass we had a “white table cloth” dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in the casino and only lost $20 gambling afterwards!

Monday October 15
Monday we awoke to another calm day so we decided to cruise outside in the Atlantic Ocean south to Cape May at the southern tip of NJ—only a 4 hour cruise. We relaxed at the marina until 11am then had another gentle cruise down the coast arriving in Cape May NJ about 3pm and docking at Utsches Marina for a two-night stay. Utsches has a great reputation among cruisers on the Intracoastal Waterway and we were surrounded by other friendly boaters heading south for the winter—some first-timers like us, others who live aboard and move up and down the coast every year. Boating is a common interest but Chris has also met some ham radio operators to chat with on the way south. The “world famous” Lobster House restaurant is next door to the marina so we walked over for some of the best swordfish we’ve ever tasted.

Tuesday October 16
With a “day off” from cruising we walked 2 miles to the Cape May town center—a lovely old fashioned beach community with numerous Victorian homes painted in classic three-color combinations. As we walked down the boardwalk along the beach we discovered the Congress Hall hotel and tavern and had a delightful lunch in this the oldest beach hotel in the country and a summer retreat to many Presidents before Camp David.

Wednesday October 17
When you leave Cape May you need to make a sharp right turn and cruise 60 miles up the Delaware Bay to the canal that leads to the Chesapeake. Although the autopilot steers the boat you need to keep a watch to dodge crab pots and floating debris... and sometimes sea life-- we saw a large sea tortoise half way across the bay heading out to sea. This is open water and can be quite rough... but our “weather window” continued and we had a smooth 8 hour cruise up the bay and through the canal to a picturesque anchorage in the Bohemia River.

Pathfinder is underway!

2007-10-13T07:33:00.000-04:00

Our plan:
Since this is our first time down the Intracoastal Waterway we don't have rigid plans but we expect the 1,800 mile trip from Newport to Sarasota will take about 5 weeks if we cruise about 50 miles per day (8 knots for 6 hours). This would be like driving to Florida for an hour each day then finding a hotel room for the night!
We'll stop in marinas about half the time and anchor out the rest of the nights. We have plenty of food and water on board but will plan to cruise each day from 8am to 2pm then stop and go ashore for a walk and meal and to see the sites.
Some of the ports we're very interested in visiting along the way are New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, Atlantic City (for some gambling), Annapolis, the Dismal Swamp canal built by George Washington through North Carolina, Charleston, Hilton Head, St. Augustine, the Okeechobee canal across Florida and home to Sarasota. We'll post some pictures on our blog.

The trip so far:
We loaded Pathfinder on Monday and Tuesday October 8th and 9th and slept on board so we could get an early start on Wednesday October 10th. After weeks of perfect weather in Newport the weather had changed to drizzle and cool.
We had a rough start with bouncing waves the first day and were happy to get to Guilford CT to spend our first night at a lovely yacht club just a short walk to the famous Guilford Green in the center of town.
We got another early start on Thursday the 11th in following seas for 7 hours but the rain held off until we tied up at City Island NY with a view of the Manhattan skyline. We decided to stay on board for dinner in heavy thundershowers and stay an extra day until the small craft warnings are cancelled.

The next few days:
We expect to cruise through New York Harbor and past the Statue of Liberty on Saturday Oct 13th, then head down the NJ coast on Sunday and Monday arriving in Cape May NJ on Tuesday before heading up Delaware Bay.

Welcome to Pathfinder

2007-08-27T19:53:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Pathfinder Blog for Trawler Cruising!

After many years of boating and 3 years cruising in the trawler Pathfinder, a Mainship 400, we've decided to share some of our thoughts and experiences as we cruise the East Coast of the United States.

Keep watching this spot for more as we depart Newport RI the first week of October 2007 and travel down the Intra-coastal waterway to Sarasota FL!

Marianne & Chris Barlow