We spent the day getting things ready to leave on Monday, but also watching the weather forecasts for the tropical storm that is forming off the east coast.
On Friday, we met another couple in the Marina, Tom and Bev. Their home port on their boat was Bayfield, Wisconsin. And since we have been there with our trailer-able Catalina 25, we were instant friends. We found out that they just returned to the US after sailing around the world for 23 years!!! So we asked if they would join us sometime before Monday, when we were scheduled to leave, to share some of their stories. So today, they came over to our boat for happy hour. We invited Gary, too.
What a fun couple! Tom was able to work occasionally as a machinist, so that helped support them over the years. It also allowed them to stay in places for longer stretches of time. Actually, Bev said she worked occasionally, too. We picked their brains about all kinds of things. They left Bayfield, WI, went thru the Great Lakes, part way down the east coast. Then they took off towards Bermuda and headed south to the US Virgin Islands, bypassing the Bahamas all together. Then down the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and onward. It was interesting to listen to them go through the technology changes over the last 23 years. Tom remembers the first time he approached a couple boats with his bag of paperback books to swap and found out they were using Kindles, which they hadn't heard of.
Sunday night, Gary talked us into going to another local place (he lived here for 5 years in early 2000’s). Wild Wings has a great local band on Sunday nights. We ordered a sample platter of their chicken wings about 8:30 and found out the band didn’t start until 11:00! So after eating, we checked the weather again. We were debating on whether we would leave in the morning or not because of the tropical storm.
When the waitress asked us if we wanted anything else, we said we were checking the weather first. She sweetly offered us her umbrella if it started to rain before we left. We chuckled because it didn't enter her mind that we were checking off shore weather.
We ended up deciding not to leave in the morning. We stayed to hear a few songs-great band playing 70’s music like we used to listen to when we were dating. But we just couldn’t make another late night. And by the way, we didn't go out for Bloody Mary's this morning.
Monday, June 30, 2014
June 27-28, 2014 Charleston continues
Since we have no schedule or place we HAVE to be, the weather is the major influence on when and where we go. We want to “go on the outside” when we leave here instead of the ICW, so we decided to wait out the weekend squalls that were predicted. So today, I took advantage of our extra, unplanned time, and found someone who could get me in for a massage. Those stubborn muscles still remember that I sat in a dental chair for over 25 years.
Dave’s indulgence has been watching the World Cup. He’s been watching the games on the computer, since we have an internet connection in the marina. I am making him explain to me how he is determining that the weather is unfavorable for us to leave. Partly so I can learn and help with that decision, and partly to be sure we’re not staying just so he can watch the World Cup.
On Friday evening, we had friends from Marathon stop over for happy hour (Miami and Shelly). They left Marathon a week after we did and caught up with us here. They are going to continue going north on the ICW, since they only have a 4 foot draft, ours is 5 foot. Plus they have a destination with a time element attached. Of course, Miami had to give Dave a hard time about not leaving.
That evening, we went back to our favorite Italian/people watching restaurant. Hard to try something new when we were so impressed with this place (and love the leftovers).
On Saturday, I decided to spend the afternoon at the Charleston Museum. They have the oldest museum in the US. The citizens started the museum in the 1730’s. They wanted to preserve the culture of Europe in this new civilization. After the museum, I took the trolly to church at 5:30 and got caught in a downpour after church. The church bulletin didn’t quite make it to the trolly stop as an umbrella. There was a beautiful rainbow over the harbor when I returned to the boat.
Dave’s day was spent working on the water system again. We have 2 water tanks. We noticed when we switched to the aft tank, the pump worked much better. So Dave decided to put in a shut off valve for the water maker system, which is connected to our forward water tank. Now the pump is working great again. We have a new water pump, but our Marathon friend recommended rebuilding the pump. So Dave still plans to do that when we are going to be somewhere where he can have a kit sent to us.
Dave also put a 12 volt outlet in the cockpit. Now we are able to charge our phones, or use our mini iPad for navigation or listen to books. Such a handy guy :)
A new boat neighbor invited us to go an Irish Pub Saturday night. Little did he know that our son plays in an Irish Band. We were able to walk about 10 blocks to Tommy Condon’s. The lead guy has been playing there for many years. Tonight they had 4 people. He played the bodhran-Irish drum, there were 2 guitar players and his son played an electric type of violin. He was amazing! Besides Irish songs, they would go into Pink Floyd, Neil Young, John Denver, Johny Cash-real crowd pleasers. Our friend, Gary, is from Tennessee. At the table next to us were 2 people from Sioux Falls, SD. But when they played Dixie, the majority of the place was obviously from the south. Talk about ‘southern pride”. It was cool to experience. Of course our friend loved it when they played Rocky Top Tennessee. We South Dakotans were feeling left out. Only song I could think of for SD was Home on the Range. Fun night, but we’re getting too old to close the bar. And it seemed like the band got louder as the crowd got rowdier.
When we got back to the boats, we told Gary to check with us when he was going to brunch with Bloody Mary’s in the morning. That was the beer talking.
Dave’s indulgence has been watching the World Cup. He’s been watching the games on the computer, since we have an internet connection in the marina. I am making him explain to me how he is determining that the weather is unfavorable for us to leave. Partly so I can learn and help with that decision, and partly to be sure we’re not staying just so he can watch the World Cup.
On Friday evening, we had friends from Marathon stop over for happy hour (Miami and Shelly). They left Marathon a week after we did and caught up with us here. They are going to continue going north on the ICW, since they only have a 4 foot draft, ours is 5 foot. Plus they have a destination with a time element attached. Of course, Miami had to give Dave a hard time about not leaving.
That evening, we went back to our favorite Italian/people watching restaurant. Hard to try something new when we were so impressed with this place (and love the leftovers).
On Saturday, I decided to spend the afternoon at the Charleston Museum. They have the oldest museum in the US. The citizens started the museum in the 1730’s. They wanted to preserve the culture of Europe in this new civilization. After the museum, I took the trolly to church at 5:30 and got caught in a downpour after church. The church bulletin didn’t quite make it to the trolly stop as an umbrella. There was a beautiful rainbow over the harbor when I returned to the boat.
Dave’s day was spent working on the water system again. We have 2 water tanks. We noticed when we switched to the aft tank, the pump worked much better. So Dave decided to put in a shut off valve for the water maker system, which is connected to our forward water tank. Now the pump is working great again. We have a new water pump, but our Marathon friend recommended rebuilding the pump. So Dave still plans to do that when we are going to be somewhere where he can have a kit sent to us.
Dave also put a 12 volt outlet in the cockpit. Now we are able to charge our phones, or use our mini iPad for navigation or listen to books. Such a handy guy :)
A new boat neighbor invited us to go an Irish Pub Saturday night. Little did he know that our son plays in an Irish Band. We were able to walk about 10 blocks to Tommy Condon’s. The lead guy has been playing there for many years. Tonight they had 4 people. He played the bodhran-Irish drum, there were 2 guitar players and his son played an electric type of violin. He was amazing! Besides Irish songs, they would go into Pink Floyd, Neil Young, John Denver, Johny Cash-real crowd pleasers. Our friend, Gary, is from Tennessee. At the table next to us were 2 people from Sioux Falls, SD. But when they played Dixie, the majority of the place was obviously from the south. Talk about ‘southern pride”. It was cool to experience. Of course our friend loved it when they played Rocky Top Tennessee. We South Dakotans were feeling left out. Only song I could think of for SD was Home on the Range. Fun night, but we’re getting too old to close the bar. And it seemed like the band got louder as the crowd got rowdier.
When we got back to the boats, we told Gary to check with us when he was going to brunch with Bloody Mary’s in the morning. That was the beer talking.
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| Pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow |
Thursday, June 26, 2014
June 18-26, 2014 Charleston Tourists
There is a free trolley system within the city of Charleston that we can catch about a block from our marina. Very handy for cruisers with no cars. On Thursday, I went to the visitor’s center and took a 90 minute bus ride around Charleston and toured a home that was built in the 1700’s. Lot of history in this city and they are so proud of their restorations.
I went to St John the Baptist Catholic Church on Sunday morning. It is a beautiful cathedral that was built in the 1890’s after the first one was lost to a fire. They had a tour after mass that I attended. Lots of symbolism that you don’t realize without the tour. The windows were “painted stain glass”. Which means there is a basic stain to the frames, but then the scenes are painted over the stained glass. There is much more detail than usual stain glass, like patterns in the material, or texture to the hair.
After church, I stopped at the City Market to stroll through and not buy anything. No room on the boat. This is a covered market area about 3 blocks long with a lot of jewelry, t-shirts, wood or glass items and some food items. So I bought Benne cookies-a 300 year old Charleston recipe with a sweet sesame flavor. And I bought a cheesy, garlic grits mix.
We went to the Charleston Riverdogs minor league baseball game on Monday night. We could take a free trolley there, but it quits at 8:00pm. The league is owned by the actor Bill Murray. I understand he is part owner of the St Paul, MN team, too. There was a fundraiser event with $1 hot dogs and $1 beers. After those, we still had to try the bacon wrapped foot long corn dogs. The game starts at 7:05, but by 7:35, they postponed the game because of rain. We were able to get tickets for Wed night and still catch the free bus back to the visitor center. By then it was 8:00, so we had to walk the remaining 10 blocks. It wasn’t raining anymore, so it was a nice walk. We stopped to look inside the Embassy Suites hotel. It is the former Citadel building from 1842, a military college. The "new citadel" was built in 1920 and has a beautiful campus.
Harbor tour: Right at our marina, there was a ferry boat that had harbor tours. So we decided to have a relaxed view of the harbor from a tourist point of view instead as a sailor. There are 4 forts in Charleston Harbor. 2 different ones had the first shots of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Charleston is the third largest natural port on the East Coast, so there is a lot of shipping done through this harbor.
Restaurants: Smokehouse BBQ and Brewery, Joe Pasta for Italian, Fleet Landing for seafood, Saffron for breakfast. At the Italian restaurant, we sat at a table at a window on King street and people watched. Dave let me in on his "people watching gimmick". He looks for people that match the music that is playing in the restaurant, either in their gait or by their attitude. Made it a lot of fun.
I went to St John the Baptist Catholic Church on Sunday morning. It is a beautiful cathedral that was built in the 1890’s after the first one was lost to a fire. They had a tour after mass that I attended. Lots of symbolism that you don’t realize without the tour. The windows were “painted stain glass”. Which means there is a basic stain to the frames, but then the scenes are painted over the stained glass. There is much more detail than usual stain glass, like patterns in the material, or texture to the hair.
After church, I stopped at the City Market to stroll through and not buy anything. No room on the boat. This is a covered market area about 3 blocks long with a lot of jewelry, t-shirts, wood or glass items and some food items. So I bought Benne cookies-a 300 year old Charleston recipe with a sweet sesame flavor. And I bought a cheesy, garlic grits mix.
We went to the Charleston Riverdogs minor league baseball game on Monday night. We could take a free trolley there, but it quits at 8:00pm. The league is owned by the actor Bill Murray. I understand he is part owner of the St Paul, MN team, too. There was a fundraiser event with $1 hot dogs and $1 beers. After those, we still had to try the bacon wrapped foot long corn dogs. The game starts at 7:05, but by 7:35, they postponed the game because of rain. We were able to get tickets for Wed night and still catch the free bus back to the visitor center. By then it was 8:00, so we had to walk the remaining 10 blocks. It wasn’t raining anymore, so it was a nice walk. We stopped to look inside the Embassy Suites hotel. It is the former Citadel building from 1842, a military college. The "new citadel" was built in 1920 and has a beautiful campus.
Harbor tour: Right at our marina, there was a ferry boat that had harbor tours. So we decided to have a relaxed view of the harbor from a tourist point of view instead as a sailor. There are 4 forts in Charleston Harbor. 2 different ones had the first shots of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Charleston is the third largest natural port on the East Coast, so there is a lot of shipping done through this harbor.
Restaurants: Smokehouse BBQ and Brewery, Joe Pasta for Italian, Fleet Landing for seafood, Saffron for breakfast. At the Italian restaurant, we sat at a table at a window on King street and people watched. Dave let me in on his "people watching gimmick". He looks for people that match the music that is playing in the restaurant, either in their gait or by their attitude. Made it a lot of fun.
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| St John the Baptist Cathedral |
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| cathedral |
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| City Market |
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| bacon wrapped foot long corndog at Riverdogs stadium. Rained out |
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| Embassy Suites hotel-former citadel |
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| Fort Sumter |
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| Sailing class |
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| USS Yorktown aircraft carrier |
June 18-26, 2014 Charleston work
Rather than give a day to day account of our time in Charleston, I will review the week in two blogs, one work and one play.
The first full day was spent getting caught up on sleep and on the computer. There actually is some stress involved with sailing, believe it or not. So it's nice to just have some down time. We then spent the week mixing routine maintenance, projects (and complications there of), and site seeing.
We added our SPOT locator to the blog site. Now if you click on it, you can follow our location. Hope it works.
One of the reasons we decided to stay here a week involved getting mail. Dave needed to order a new autopilot drive. We also had important mail waiting for us in Florida, so we decided to stay a week instead of a few days. That also gave us time to do more projects and take our time as tourists.
This small marina is cheaper than the city marina, but it sure is rough. We haven’t felt this rock and roll motion since we left Mobile Bay (with a little in St Augustine). There is only one shower for everyone to use, but we often shower on our boat. BUT they have free laundry, which is rare. Marathon was $3.00 per load each machine. And free laundry means washing bedding and rugs, too.
Maintenance for me: clean the heads, floors, refrigerator maintenance (important because it is so small), defrost the freezer (every 3 months), grocery shopping, rearrange food storage, prepare food to be eaten under way, and laundry.
Maintenance for Dave: changed the oil on the engine (every 100 hours) and the high pressure pump of the water maker.
Since we weren’t using the water maker, he had to flush it.
Scrubbed the deck and cockpit. Cleaned off the back end of the boat. Small barnacles can enter a small space but then they grow and expand and can separate layers. So always a concern. They are sharp, so you have to wear gloves. Not sure when he is going to clean the entire hull again. Alligators and sharks are a concern.
Projects: Replaced autopilot drive, no complications. Old one had a broken wire which Dave fixed, so now we have a spare autopilot (just need to store it on board). The real test will be once we are on the move again.
Received RayMarine part in St Augustine and installed here-NMEA multiplexer-used to connect all of our electronics so they mesh. But you risk loosing everything that is connected if you are hit by lightening. What we want is for the AIS to show up on our chart plotter. It will show ships that could possibly collide with us. Previously, it only worked in our cabin below, not out in the cockpit. After several days of working on this, 2 phone calls to RayMarine and one to iCom-AIS, it still wasn’t communicating. Dave was going to give it a break, look at it again in another port, and maybe hire someone to get everything to mesh. He updated firm ware the on the chart plotter (that runs the chart plotter) and the soft ware. THEN it recognized the AIS!! Happy Dance on the boat!!
He placed a shut off valve for our forward water tank. Then if he is working on the system, he can shut off the source.
Mounted an additional wench handle pocket.
Friday-discovered fresh water in the bilge. Dave retraced everything he had done involving water. We checked all bilges and storage areas under the bed and in the lazerettes. No other areas with water on board. So far the water hasn’t returned. There was air in the water lines making the water pump run longer than normal. That was taken care of but has returned. So Dave is going to look at all the water connections to see if there is a leak anywhere besides the areas he had been working on. May need to replace the water pump.
The first full day was spent getting caught up on sleep and on the computer. There actually is some stress involved with sailing, believe it or not. So it's nice to just have some down time. We then spent the week mixing routine maintenance, projects (and complications there of), and site seeing.
We added our SPOT locator to the blog site. Now if you click on it, you can follow our location. Hope it works.
One of the reasons we decided to stay here a week involved getting mail. Dave needed to order a new autopilot drive. We also had important mail waiting for us in Florida, so we decided to stay a week instead of a few days. That also gave us time to do more projects and take our time as tourists.
This small marina is cheaper than the city marina, but it sure is rough. We haven’t felt this rock and roll motion since we left Mobile Bay (with a little in St Augustine). There is only one shower for everyone to use, but we often shower on our boat. BUT they have free laundry, which is rare. Marathon was $3.00 per load each machine. And free laundry means washing bedding and rugs, too.
Maintenance for me: clean the heads, floors, refrigerator maintenance (important because it is so small), defrost the freezer (every 3 months), grocery shopping, rearrange food storage, prepare food to be eaten under way, and laundry.
Maintenance for Dave: changed the oil on the engine (every 100 hours) and the high pressure pump of the water maker.
Since we weren’t using the water maker, he had to flush it.
Scrubbed the deck and cockpit. Cleaned off the back end of the boat. Small barnacles can enter a small space but then they grow and expand and can separate layers. So always a concern. They are sharp, so you have to wear gloves. Not sure when he is going to clean the entire hull again. Alligators and sharks are a concern.
Projects: Replaced autopilot drive, no complications. Old one had a broken wire which Dave fixed, so now we have a spare autopilot (just need to store it on board). The real test will be once we are on the move again.
Received RayMarine part in St Augustine and installed here-NMEA multiplexer-used to connect all of our electronics so they mesh. But you risk loosing everything that is connected if you are hit by lightening. What we want is for the AIS to show up on our chart plotter. It will show ships that could possibly collide with us. Previously, it only worked in our cabin below, not out in the cockpit. After several days of working on this, 2 phone calls to RayMarine and one to iCom-AIS, it still wasn’t communicating. Dave was going to give it a break, look at it again in another port, and maybe hire someone to get everything to mesh. He updated firm ware the on the chart plotter (that runs the chart plotter) and the soft ware. THEN it recognized the AIS!! Happy Dance on the boat!!
He placed a shut off valve for our forward water tank. Then if he is working on the system, he can shut off the source.
Mounted an additional wench handle pocket.
Friday-discovered fresh water in the bilge. Dave retraced everything he had done involving water. We checked all bilges and storage areas under the bed and in the lazerettes. No other areas with water on board. So far the water hasn’t returned. There was air in the water lines making the water pump run longer than normal. That was taken care of but has returned. So Dave is going to look at all the water connections to see if there is a leak anywhere besides the areas he had been working on. May need to replace the water pump.
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| cleaning the bilge |
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| Our boat is second from right |
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
June 17, 2014 Charleston, SC
This morning, we would be on a rising tide, so it wasn't as critical as to when we left. So we left about 9:30. The worst spot today for depths would be Watts Cut and we made it through there fine. Dave was looking ahead at the rest of the route about 1:00 and discovered that the last bascule bridge (draw bridge) that we had to go through right before Charleston closes at 3:30 everyday because of the high volume of traffic. And it will open on demand after 6:30 IF there is a bridge tender there. So we thought we better high tail it to be sure we made it on time. We actually got there about 2:45 for the 3:00 opening.
After the Elliot Cut with the bascule bride, we entered the Ashley River along with all kinds of water traffic. The historic part of Charleston is on an island with the Ashley River on the west side and the Cooper River on the east side. We were headed to the Charleston Maritime Center Marina on the east side. So we had to round the southern tip of the island and head north along the east side.
We saw what looked like two different sailing classes. One group were in boats that were about 20 feet with 2 sails and 3 people on board. It looked like 2 students and an instructor. The other group was closer to shore. They were in small sailing dinghies with one sail. That's where you really learn to sail. What an opportunity these kids have.
When we rounded the island, there was much more traffic. There were tour boats, ferries, cargo ships, cruise ships and other personal sailboats and power boats. We are back to civilization!
You could also see Ft Sumter, an aircraft carrier that is part of a museum, cargo ships from Singapore and Norway, and a double masted schooner at the end of our pier.
Once we were safely at our dock, we showered and went on a "walk about". We headed for the historic district. There were many restaurants to chose from. We decided on a brewery/smokehouse. We are enjoying sampling BBQ across the south. We enjoyed their brews and shared a BBQ sampler platter. Then we walked around about a 6 block radius and stopped at a tavern for a while and an Irish Pub. At the pub, we met two guys probably in their early 30's that were locals. One had what I would think of as a South Carolina accent, that slow drawl. We enjoyed talking with them and exchanging Ole and Lena jokes for some of their southern jokes. We ended up staying out way past our bedtime.
After the Elliot Cut with the bascule bride, we entered the Ashley River along with all kinds of water traffic. The historic part of Charleston is on an island with the Ashley River on the west side and the Cooper River on the east side. We were headed to the Charleston Maritime Center Marina on the east side. So we had to round the southern tip of the island and head north along the east side.
We saw what looked like two different sailing classes. One group were in boats that were about 20 feet with 2 sails and 3 people on board. It looked like 2 students and an instructor. The other group was closer to shore. They were in small sailing dinghies with one sail. That's where you really learn to sail. What an opportunity these kids have.
When we rounded the island, there was much more traffic. There were tour boats, ferries, cargo ships, cruise ships and other personal sailboats and power boats. We are back to civilization!
You could also see Ft Sumter, an aircraft carrier that is part of a museum, cargo ships from Singapore and Norway, and a double masted schooner at the end of our pier.
Once we were safely at our dock, we showered and went on a "walk about". We headed for the historic district. There were many restaurants to chose from. We decided on a brewery/smokehouse. We are enjoying sampling BBQ across the south. We enjoyed their brews and shared a BBQ sampler platter. Then we walked around about a 6 block radius and stopped at a tavern for a while and an Irish Pub. At the pub, we met two guys probably in their early 30's that were locals. One had what I would think of as a South Carolina accent, that slow drawl. We enjoyed talking with them and exchanging Ole and Lena jokes for some of their southern jokes. We ended up staying out way past our bedtime.
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| shoreline of Charleston |
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| sharing the waters with the cruise ship |
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| Schooner at our marina |
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| USS Yorktown air craft carrier museum |
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| cargo ship from Singapore |
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| our boat is the second from the right, longest cable-stayed bridge beyond the marina |
June 16, 2014 ICW routine
This morning as Dave brought up the anchor, he found 2 starfish and 2 crabs on the anchor. They were all about 3 inches in diameter. But the crabs were poised and ready to defend themselves. Of course, he didn't have a camera on him.
We are establishing a good routine when we are ready to leave an anchorage. We fill liter bottles with water, and now I have been adding some lime juice, since we have them on board. We replenish a snack bag with nuts, dried fruit, cheese and crackers. (That's more critical when you are in rough waters and don't want to be below deck for very long. On nicer days, I usually make a lunch of sandwiches, raw veggies and chips. ) Dave goes to the bow to bring up the anchor. I remove our bug screens and close the hatches. I also close the through hulls and turn off the fresh water. If there was a water leak while we were underway, the water pump would run. And once the water tank was drained, the pump could burn out. We probably wouldn't hear the pump running while the boat engine was running. So as a precaution, we turn it the fresh water. And actually, we should get in the habit of doing that if we are going to leave the boat for several hours.
We take the water, snacks, binoculars, and now we take fly swatters all to the cockpit. We also turn on the instruments, VHF, and sometimes the autopilot. Some days I load up the CD player and we have music through out the day. Seems to make the day go faster.
All this takes about 10 minutes. Then when I am at the helm, we bring up the anchor and I get us back on the route. Then Dave usually takes the helm for the first watch. I text Jackie and Brian, our float planners, to let them know we are leaving and where we are headed and when we expect to be there. Then I text them when we arrive. So far, so good. They haven't had to call the Coast Guard to find us yet. Over the past week, we added applying insect repellent to our ankles and feet. We get huge horse flies that want to bite our ankles. Why is that anyway?
Today was an uneventful day on the ICW. We did use an alternate route in one spot to avoid a shallow stretch because it was about an hour before low tide. Again, the Active Captain app gave us the suggestion of using the alternate route.
We anchored west of Watts Cut which we would go through in the morning at high tide. We went past it tonight at low tide and it looked pretty shallow. Officially we were at Edisto Island, SC
We are establishing a good routine when we are ready to leave an anchorage. We fill liter bottles with water, and now I have been adding some lime juice, since we have them on board. We replenish a snack bag with nuts, dried fruit, cheese and crackers. (That's more critical when you are in rough waters and don't want to be below deck for very long. On nicer days, I usually make a lunch of sandwiches, raw veggies and chips. ) Dave goes to the bow to bring up the anchor. I remove our bug screens and close the hatches. I also close the through hulls and turn off the fresh water. If there was a water leak while we were underway, the water pump would run. And once the water tank was drained, the pump could burn out. We probably wouldn't hear the pump running while the boat engine was running. So as a precaution, we turn it the fresh water. And actually, we should get in the habit of doing that if we are going to leave the boat for several hours.
We take the water, snacks, binoculars, and now we take fly swatters all to the cockpit. We also turn on the instruments, VHF, and sometimes the autopilot. Some days I load up the CD player and we have music through out the day. Seems to make the day go faster.
All this takes about 10 minutes. Then when I am at the helm, we bring up the anchor and I get us back on the route. Then Dave usually takes the helm for the first watch. I text Jackie and Brian, our float planners, to let them know we are leaving and where we are headed and when we expect to be there. Then I text them when we arrive. So far, so good. They haven't had to call the Coast Guard to find us yet. Over the past week, we added applying insect repellent to our ankles and feet. We get huge horse flies that want to bite our ankles. Why is that anyway?
Today was an uneventful day on the ICW. We did use an alternate route in one spot to avoid a shallow stretch because it was about an hour before low tide. Again, the Active Captain app gave us the suggestion of using the alternate route.
We anchored west of Watts Cut which we would go through in the morning at high tide. We went past it tonight at low tide and it looked pretty shallow. Officially we were at Edisto Island, SC
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| the view of Watts cut at low tide. not sure we'd make it through |
June 15, 2014 Father's Day/rocket launch
Happy Father’s Day to Dave!
We had his favorite breakfast, pancakes, bacon and eggs fried over easy. We even put bananas in the pancakes.
We were 6 feet deeper than when we anchored last night. Crazy! We left at 9:00 to time another shallow area during high tide. At high tide-10:30-we planned to enter Hell Gate. It was a narrow channel with warnings of shoaling at the east side for half of it and the west side for the second half. Before entering, a barge hailed us on the VHF and asked us to wait until he exited, since the channel was so narrow. We didn’t mind at all. Just as we were about to enter, a bigger motorized boat with a lot of people on it were hovering near the entrance. At first we thought they were stuck. Then we realized it was a site seeing boat looking at dolphins. We weren’t sure what they were going to do next, but we proceeded and made it past them fine. We usually have an air horn ready to blast if we need to get someone’s attention.
We saw lots of dolphins through out the day. We even had a few greet us when we anchored tonight. We anchored off the ICW by Hilton Head, SC. We saw some really nice homes along the coast. South Carolina is one of about 4 states I have not been to. Check that one off.
For lunch and dinner today, we had Dave’s beans from the Wonderbag. They really turned out good. We left them in the bag all night and until about 1:00 today. They didn’t over cook. Just awesome!
When we had passed Cape Canaveral in Florida, I had checked to see when the next launch would be. It originally was going to be about June 10. We weren’t going to wait there to watch it, but thought we may see it further up the coast. Well, the rocket launch was postponed until today. We sat out on the deck of our boat waiting to see if we could see it from here. The launch was at 8:00pm. About 8:20 we noticed a jet stream in the sky. Then it turned and flew right over us. Of course it was very high, but it was very fast and had to be the rocket that was launched. It was much higher and faster than a jet would have been. Another cool evening.
We had his favorite breakfast, pancakes, bacon and eggs fried over easy. We even put bananas in the pancakes.
We were 6 feet deeper than when we anchored last night. Crazy! We left at 9:00 to time another shallow area during high tide. At high tide-10:30-we planned to enter Hell Gate. It was a narrow channel with warnings of shoaling at the east side for half of it and the west side for the second half. Before entering, a barge hailed us on the VHF and asked us to wait until he exited, since the channel was so narrow. We didn’t mind at all. Just as we were about to enter, a bigger motorized boat with a lot of people on it were hovering near the entrance. At first we thought they were stuck. Then we realized it was a site seeing boat looking at dolphins. We weren’t sure what they were going to do next, but we proceeded and made it past them fine. We usually have an air horn ready to blast if we need to get someone’s attention.
We saw lots of dolphins through out the day. We even had a few greet us when we anchored tonight. We anchored off the ICW by Hilton Head, SC. We saw some really nice homes along the coast. South Carolina is one of about 4 states I have not been to. Check that one off.
For lunch and dinner today, we had Dave’s beans from the Wonderbag. They really turned out good. We left them in the bag all night and until about 1:00 today. They didn’t over cook. Just awesome!
When we had passed Cape Canaveral in Florida, I had checked to see when the next launch would be. It originally was going to be about June 10. We weren’t going to wait there to watch it, but thought we may see it further up the coast. Well, the rocket launch was postponed until today. We sat out on the deck of our boat waiting to see if we could see it from here. The launch was at 8:00pm. About 8:20 we noticed a jet stream in the sky. Then it turned and flew right over us. Of course it was very high, but it was very fast and had to be the rocket that was launched. It was much higher and faster than a jet would have been. Another cool evening.
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| Happy Father's Day |
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| Talking to his mom while waiting on our deck for the rocket launch |
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| The site I was watching for days before the launch |
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| when we first noticed the rocket |
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| rocket flying over our rigging |
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