Greetings from Vero Beach!

Edited 11/28/07 - pictures added

We have not had internet service for some time now. I’m sure some of you thought we had dropped off the face of the earth.

It’s been so long since we posted that I can hardly remember what we’ve been doing and where we’ve been! Thank goodness for the log book.

We spent a couple of days in St. Augustine, Florida being your typical tourists. Plus, Jeff managed to find a barber shop and got all of his hair cut!! St. Augustine has a lot of beautiful old buildings, especially churches. I’ve posted a few pictures from there (above). We even rode on the “Little Red Train”. We anchored right off the main street on the waterfront. It was a short dinghy ride to the marina and the downtown area. The town was busy getting ready to ‘light up’ for the holidays. They were putting white lights on all the buildings and trees along the waterfront. They were to have a festival on the 17th of November and light everything up that evening – we left that morning so we did not get to see it.

We were in New Smyrna Beach, Florida for a week or so and had a great time (more about that in the next paragraph). We spent Thanksgiving with our family. Those that don’t live in the area traveled in for the holiday. We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. They all wanted to see the boat and how and where we are living now, and it was fun for us to show it off. We had two very exciting surprises over the Thanksgiving weekend – our niece Kelly, was proposed to by her boyfriend Corey. Corey is in the Army and surprised her by showing up at the house Thanksgiving afternoon. The second surprise was the announcement by our son and daughter in law that we are going to be grandparents a second time – in July! Wow, what a day! I’m posting a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving. By the way - we also had 9 dogs in attendance for Thanksgiving. When our family gathers, we bring our dogs also!!!

What a delightful place New Smyrna is – we really like it there. Growing up in Orlando we spent time at the beach in New Smyrna, but it sure is different when you are all grown up (and I would say we are all grown up!) and seeing it from the water side. We wouldn’t mind spending the winter there, but, there are no slips available. We left New Smyrna with our son Brian, daughter in law, Melanie, and 2 1/2 yr. old granddaughter, Kate aboard. They traveled to Titusville with us – a short day run, to see what it was like. They got off there and drove home to Birmingham, Alabama. It was fun to have them aboard. Kate really enjoyed watching the dolphins and pelicans, as well as feeding the catfish that were under the boat. She even managed to entice the seagulls to come to the boat to catch some bread that she was throwing, although it didn’t take much persuasion on her part!

We arrived in Vero Beach about an hour ago and will be staying here for a few days, then on to Lake Worth where we will leave from to cross over to the Bahamas.

Lowcountry Greetings!!

November 10, 2007

This post covers South Carolina as well as Georgia, in the lowcountry. It has been quite cold the last 3 or 4 mornings – in the 30’s and 40’s. We were not ready for this. Thank goodness for the cockpit enclosure! It has been in the high 50’s in the boat when we wake up, brrrrrrrr. We start out with about three or four layers, and peel them off as the sun comes up and warms the enclosure. It generally warms up to the upper 60’s – low 70’s by 2:00pm. We can actually wear shorts inside the enclosure by lunchtime, but it is a little chilly outside for that, but only because of the wind. The dogs think the temperature is perfect. And I guess if you wear a heavy winter coat all the time it does feel good.

Savannah has caught on to the dolphins surfacing around us, and watches for them. We had dolphins all around us the other evening after we anchored and she got quite excited.

We don’t travel very fast, maybe 6 kts., but we passed a little yellow sailboat the other day, approx. 23’ towing a 14’-15’ skiff. We arrived at our anchorage for the evening and about 2 hours later in comes the little yellow boat. We leave in the morning about 6:15am, and go til 3 or 4 and here comes the little yellow boat in about 2 hrs or so after we are anchored. What’s the point in going faster, he gets to the same place we do almost every night. We are all heading south.

We check out the names of some of the boats we’ve see – here are some unusual ones: BUTTER & EGGS; CHIPS AHOY; RUM TUM TIGER; WISHES GRANTED.

Cumberland Island National Park

November 13, 2007

We are at Cumberland Island, Ga., just above the Florida line, as I am writing this, although we have no internet so it won’t be posted probably for a few days. Cumberland Island is 85% National Park, with herds of wild horses roaming free, although we have only seen 1/2 dozen or so. The island is 20 miles long and about 1 mile wide. You can only get here by boat. There is a ferry that comes in at 10:15am to drop people off and then again at 4:45pm to pick them. There are campsites here, but you must bring everything with you and take everything back, including your garbage. We talked to a couple of people from the Atlanta area that had come to camp for the weekend; this was their 2nd time to come here. We walked out to the beach this morning and looked for shells. It was really strange to be on such a nice beach and have only a handful of people out there. It is truly a beautiful place and we have collected our share of sea shells.

Above - the path to the beach

Below left - some of the horses on the island

Below right - the Dungeness Ruins - this was quite a castle in it's time.

Bottom left - a baby racoon that got separated from his family - they crossed the path and he lagged behind.

Bottom center - some of the shells we collected

'Sandpiper' does an About Face and Heads North

November 8, 2007

Jan, Bob’s friend, flew home last Sunday to Mystic, Connecticut. We left them in Beaufort, SC several days ago and Bob said he would meet up with us somewhere around St. Augustine in the next week or so. It was so good to meet Jan – she makes Bob happy, and she said Bob makes her happy as well. We had heard so much about Jan and truly enjoyed spending some time with her. We received a call from Bob this morning 11/8 – he has decided not to go any farther south, but to head back to Deltaville, Virginia and haul his boat out of the water for the winter, and spend the winter in Mystic, Connecticut with Jan. We were not at all surprised. We are grateful to him for showing us the ropes and now feel confident to head South alone. We realized about a week ago that he was leaning this way. We will miss Bob very much, but couldn’t be happier for him and for Jan as well. We are hoping to talk them into coming to the Bahamas this winter to spend time on the boat with us. Bob left a jug of Virginia’s Bowman Scotch aboard, which we expect him to reclaim. Jan was already planning to spend time in the Bahamas with Bob, and Bob was planning to be there the whole winter, so this sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Charleston, SC

We have spent about a week in Charleston. Tropical Storm Noel and a strong cold front kept us in port, as well as Jeff’s dental appointment on the 5th of November (he rented a car and drove to Chattanooga). We anchored in the Ashley River for the first several days during the most severe weather, which is probably nothing compared to what we are going to see in the Bahamas when the cold fronts come through. The anchorage is open and we rocked and rolled. Winds up to 30 knots and tidal currents of 2 knots tested our ground tackle and our sea legs (as well as Shelby and Savannah’s). We did fine, although we were uncomfortable for a day when the wind was out of the ENE blowing across the harbor against the current causing large rollers in the anchorage. It was very difficult to access the dinghy. We moved to the Charleston City Marina for three days when Jeff went to Chattanooga (wouldn’t you know it, the weather cleared up) while Bob moved to a marina on the Cooper River. We were one of the much smaller boats in the marina. There were unbelievably huge boats in the marina – some will be there for several more days to several more months. They mostly had the ‘crew’ aboard, and not the owners, although a few did have an owner aboard, but not many. The crew moves the boat wherever the owner wants it moved to. We talked to crew members on numerous boats. Most said they live permanently on the boat and the owner just flies in for a weekend several times a year. We are talking boats that are in excess of 85 feet, some as large as 125 feet or more. We have posted a picture of a couple of them.

Our friends Sara and Michael, who we met in Deltaville, Va. where they keep their sailboat “White Star”, live in Mt. Pleasant (a suburb of Charleston) and were very gracious hosts while we were here. We had dinner at their home and met them on several occasions in Charleston. Michael is a professor at the Citadel, where we attended the Homecoming parade Friday afternoon. Thanks Sarah and Michael!






Cadets forming up for the Parade (right)








Cadets passing for review during Parade (below)







Bob’s friend Jan arrived in Charleston Saturday evening Nov. 3. We have not met Jan yet, as Bob’s boat was on the other side of Charleston from us. We are to meet them somewhere down around Beaufort, SC. and look forward to that.

Charleston is a uniquely beautiful city. Here are a couple of pictures from the water.

Top picture - Bridge over the Cooper River

Right picture - Downtown Charleston

Bottom picture - the anchorage we were in (with the marina in the background). There sure were a lot of boats at anchor. This was taken as we were leaving.

Nothing Could Be Finer .....

…..than to be in Carolina.


It has been a while since our last post (no internet service), so let’s see if we can catch you up on where we’ve been and what we’ve seen.

People who have made the trip up and down the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway) before have told us it is boring and it may be if you’ve made the trip many times, but for us it is all new. I thought I would get a lot of reading done on the trip – not so at all. We are both so busy looking all around us at the scenery. Some is ho-hum, but most is so beautiful. And if we get bored with that we still have to watch for the next marker so we make sure we stay in the channel and don’t run aground. We have taken many pictures while underway – nature, birds, other boats, lighthouses, mile-long docks, etc.

One of the pictures we are posting is of an overhead lift (like on ski slopes), only it is for a golf course (in Myrtle Beach, SC). The golf course is on one side of the ICW and the lift takes people from Myrtle Beach on the other side – very interesting! The sailboat in that picture is of “Interim”, New York, NY with Carol, Bill, and Simon (dog) aboard. We first met them in Annapolis and struck up a conversation because they have a Gulfstar also. Unplanned, we ran into them weeks later at Camp Lejeune, Little River, Wrightsville Beach, and Charleston. Enjoyed happy hour and dinner with them several times. Hope to see them later in Vero Beach.

We left Wrightsville Beach Saturday, 10/27/07 and headed for Little River, SC, which is right on the SC/NC border – nothing noteworthy there. Headed to Georgetown, SC on Sunday, the 28th. It is a pleasant, quaint southern town. We stayed there for two nights to let the wind blow itself out – and boy did it (the first night anyway). Left there Tuesday morning, heading towards Charleston, SC. We stopped in Price Creek, about 25 miles north of Charleston, SC. We could see the lights of Charleston on the horizon. Price Creek goes out to the Atlantic Ocean and is very narrow, although quite deep (20’), as far as the ICW goes. We were about a mile or so from the beach and thought we would take the dogs out to run, as well as watch the breakers come in, but, the current was strong when we anchored so we decided not to. Instead we sat on the boat and watched the dolphins, actually porpoises, swim all around us.

We arrived in Charleston on Halloween. We had no trick or treaters. The pictures below are along the way to Charleston. More about Charleston later.

'Interim' (above & right)

Georgetown

City Clock

Tower

(left)

We are far enough south to finally see Palm trees!