Heading South

We arrived at St. Augustine at about 10am on Saturday morning.  St. Augustine is an absolutely beatiful city.  It is dominated by a Spanish motif with ornate buildings trimmed in wrought iron.  The downtown is filled with little shops of every description, many of which cater to the Cuban population.  Much of the city center is pedistrian walkways so cars are not an issue.  We really enjoyed our day puttering around the city.

We wanted to stay another day, but the desire/need to keep moving south won out.  We again went "outside" into the Atlantic (not wanting to deal with the ICW) and motored along the coast at about 3 miles out.  We traveled about 50+ miles and it was time to seek an anchorage for the night; so we turned into Ponce de Leon Inlet right at sunset:

As it was getting dark quickly, we had to get the anchor down as soon as possible,  The shallow creeks are no place to be moving around after dark.  (Although we have come in at sunset so many times on this trip we are thinking of renaming the boat "Late Arrival")       The "official" anchorage was about 2 miles south of the inlet  down a creek through some pretty "skinny" water.   This was not a viable option as it was almost dark, so we looked at the charts and instead of heading south inside the inlet, we went north and found a spot just behind the lighthouse on the inside of the inlet.  Ice cold beers and burgers on the grill was the evening fare as we looked at the scenery from the cockpit:                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Not a bad view on a warm evening ?!

We were off and running first thing this morning.  I am typing this post from the nav-station as we are motor-sailing down the coast bound for Cape Canaveral.  We intend to spend a couple of days at the Cape and visit the Kennedy Space Center and do some maintance on the boat while we have Mike aboard.  I have been working on his "to do" list since I learned he was coming.  All for now, THE CREW plus ONE

                                                                                                                                                 

Thanksgiving 2009

We picked up Capt. Mike at the airport who arrived right on time.  We returned to the marina where Thanksgiving festivities were just underway.  Pete and Jane met a couple from Ireland who had just arrived at the marina and invited them to dinner.  They were from Ireland and had done a transatlantic a couple a years ago and have been cruising America since on their boat "Safari".  Here we all are just sitting down to dinner:                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Trudie and Jane did a GREAT job preparing turkey (I had earlier said it was going to be chicken...but was wrong) and all the fixing right down to a Trudie original homemake apple pie...Delicious !!!! And, here are the boys cleaning up after dinner:                                                                                                                

We had planned on leaving at first light for a motor down the ICW to St. Augustine, but the entire crew of Persephone overslept.  We awoke at 8 am and didn't get underway until just before 9 am.  We didn't make it to St. Augustine so we pulled off the ICW into a little creek to spend the night.   Again, we are anchored in an isolated area far from civilization.   Trudie is making dinner as I type, and Mike is drinking a beer.  Yes, all is in balance aboard Persephone.                                                                                                                

THANKSGIVING SURPRISE !

Hey all.....

As we mentioned in our last post, we got a call a couple of days ago.  The call was from our regular crew member Mike who said he had to take some vacation time from work by the end of the year or he would lose it.  SO....Mike asked where we would be for Thanksgiving and he was flying in !!  What a great Thanksgiving surpirse!!  We decided the closest airport to our position was Jacksonville, and Mike immediately booked his flight.  Mike will arrive here at 4 PM today, so we rented a car to pick him up at the airport. Mike will be spending the next 10 days aboard while we wind our way down the coast of Florida. We want to keep moving so we can get far enough south to cross over to the Bahamas for Christmas.

We have been working on the "to do" list for Mike since he called.  A light is burned out halfway up the mast, a piece of tape needs to be redone up the mast as well.  (I don't do heights !!!!)  We have been experiencing some battery charging issues for the past week.  (We may need to replace our entire battery bank consisting of five large batteries....read BIG bucks.)  MacGiver Mike will sort it all out....we hope!!

After picking up Mike, we will be going to "Kinvara"  for a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  A turkey won't fit into a galley sized oven so chicken is the bird of the day.  Trudie has been busy making the side dishes to bring along.  It's going to be a great dinner, and our first holiday since cutting the dock lines and going cruising.  Sure doesn't look like Thanksgiving outside with bright skies, palm trees and warm weather. We will just have to make do :)  

Gotta go and clean up "Mike's Room" and get some directions to the airport.....  Happy Thanksgiving to all !!   THE CREW

Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My !!!

Well, we'll get to lions, tigers and bears in a second....

We left Hilton Head after a couple of days of R + R.  As we said,  the place we stayed was beautiful:

You can see Persephone in the foreground.  The "Kinvaras" climbed to the top of the lighthouse to take pictures.  T and I stayed firmly on the ground.  One hundred-fifteen stairs on a hot day didn't interest us !!

We left from Hilton Head and left the ICW for a sail in the ocean to St. Catherine's Inlet.  It was a blustery sail, with a moderate breeze but big rollers.  We anchored in Walburg Creek adjacent to St. Catherines.  St. C's is owned by the NY Zoological Society (Bronx Zoo people) and used to raise and breed exotic animals.  The island is off limits to the public so we couldn't go exploring.
Walburg Creek is in the middle of nowhere...no people, services or supplies...NOTHING except nature.  A real contrast to our Hilton Head experience.

We left Walburg at first light and went back to the ocean.  "Kinvara" opted for inside down the ICW route.  Our destination was St. Simon's Island about 30 miles from St. Catherines.  We were making great time and weather was favorable, so we made the decision to press on to St. Mary's inlet.  (An additional 25 miles) The St. Mary's River is the divider between Georgia and Florida.  We arrived at the inlet just at sunset.  The inlet is 5 miles long but very well lit.  Once inside the inlet it was pitch dark and there were three intersecting channels with red and green bouys flashing everywhere.  (We later counted 78 bouys at the channel junction !!)  We picked our way up the channel and turned into an unmarked channel leading to Cumberland Island.  We got the anchor down and had an emergency beer.  Trudie exclamined that her "legs were like jelly".   Our electronic navigation equipment really paid off that night.

Cumberland Isand is a US National Park donated by the Carnegie Estate.  The ruins of their summer home called Dungeness (interesting name) is what remains.  Mrs. Carnegie in her will ordered the release of all her horses upon her death.  The horses roam wild....we saw 5 horses yesterday romaining the ruins.  In addition, we saw a flock of wild turkeys, and several armardillos,  The beach is inspiring....huge rolling dunes, and a flat beach which streaches for literally 10 miles in each direction.  The only access to Cumberland is by boat.  So, there are only a handfull of people at any time on the isand.  We have spent two days here enjoying the scenery.  But it's time to move south into FLORIDA.  When I am done with this post, we will haul our anchor and take a quick hop over to St. Fernandina, FL. 

We got a phone call a couple of days ago......we received a REALLY BIG surprise which we will share....but, that has to wait till tomorrow.  (NO, Trudie's NOT pregnant)  Stay tuned.  THE CREW

On the move again

Good morning all.


This is just a quick update. We left Beaufort, SC yesterday afternoon. We had been waiting for some important mail to arrive via “general delivery”. In order to receive mail, we have to “guess” where we will be in a week or 10 days. We then notify our mail forwarder which sends the mail to the local post office we designate. We then go to the post office everyday to see if the mail has arrived. Sort of like the pony express……


Anyway, we motored down Port Royal Sound to Hilton Head. We intended to anchor out but the anchorage was swirling with currents due to the large tidal ranges. It was getting late in the afternoon, so we opted to call a marina recommended by Bob and Lori on “Pride”. What a great choice !!


Harbour Town Marina (not mis-spelled) is gorgeous! This is a marina in a gated community surrounded by upscale shops and ringed by a championship golf course. The method of transportation is golf carts, and bikes.

Our plans are to do some clean up on the boat, a fresh water bath is first on the menu and then do some sightseeing including checking out the beach. THE CREW

BEAUFORT, SC

On Saturday, we were transiting from Charleston to Beaufort, SC down the ICW. The tides rise and fallhere approximately 7 feet which creates swift currents in the rivers and canals:


“Hey T, look at this…..our speed over the bottom has jumped up to 10 knots !” (That’s flying in a sailboat under power) “Wow !! we are up to 12 kts and increasing !!! “ “I’ve never seen 13 knots !! “Boy, we are getting one heck of a push from this current; we are going to get to Beaufort before noon !!” “Hey captain, we don’t seem to be moving all that fast…are you sure ?” “Kill-joy !! Of course we are…look at the speedometer.” “Hey captain, what does KM/Hr on the speedometer mean ?...never saw that before” “Well, it means kilometers per hour….”WHAT THE %&#$ !!!!!!!” “The speed is reading in kilometers per hour, NOT KNOTS…a km/hr is about half of a knot” Someone must of leaned against the instruments and changed the setting. DAMN….no speed record, no early arrival, no hero stories about the planning the tides and currents perfectly, and NO bragging to “Kinvara”.


We arrived in Beaufort, SC at 3PM (with Kinvara who had gone about 25 miles further than we did) on Saturday to a very attractive town. We are anchored just off the City Docks looking at the waterfront shops, bars and restaurants. Yesterday was a maintenance/cleanup day…..laundry, clean up the boat and some sewing got done. We are heading to breakfast ashore at a waterfront coffee shop this morning and plan on site seeing and shopping this afternoon.


And, yes , I have to pull out the manual for the speed instrument and find out how to reset it back to knots!


THE CREW

Chained to Charleston

Get us otta here !!

Charleston is one of the most beautiful cities we have seen on our way south.  You could blink and swear you are in Boston; but the southern charm confirms you are in Low Country.  (Low Country is the southern part of South Carolina which is very flat and dotted with marshes and wetlands. This is where grits, hominy, pork rinds and okra are served a thousand different ways)

Now for the tooth report.....We went to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and met with a maxio-facial surgeon on Monday.  He suggested a wait and see course of "action".  This being a teaching hospital, he turned to his young resident and asked: "have you preped our next patient yet,  ya know he's 80 years old !"  The student admitted that he had not done the prep.  The doctor turned and instructed: "Give him a couple of Viagra, I don't want him rolling off the table when I'm working on him "!!!  Trudie's mouth (which was stiff and sore from all of the recent work) dropped open. 

There was no improvement on Tuesday, so we went back to Dr. Viagra.  He extracted the tooth and T has steadily improved.  One down, one to go......

Now for the hurricane report.....  Ida just won't give up.  Although it is a "remnant low" it is spinning right over Charleston.   We have had a couple of days of driving rain (several inches) and howling winds.  Seems we have been under a gale watch for days with no relief until the weekend.  We are safe and sound at a huge marina, but are very anxious to get underway.  Maybe tomorrow.

We are thinking about renting a car today and driving down to Beaufort, SC to pick up our mail, and see something different.  We have invited Peter and Jane of "Kinvara"  to come along for the ride.  They, too, need a break from the boat.

We are only 148 miles from the Florida boarder......so close, yet so far......  THE DAMP CREW

Hurricanes and Toothaches...the same ?

How are hurricanes and toothaches alike ? The answer on Persephone is that they both cause major headaches !! As we mentioned in our previous blog, Trudie had to have a root canal last Wednesday while we were in Southport, NC (near Cape Fear). She was experiencing some discomfort but nothing significant, so we decided to do the overnight hop on Thursday from Cape Fear to Charleston; a distance of approximately 100 nautical miles.


While underway, the Coast Guard announced that a shrimp boat sank leaving a debris field a mile square with 3’ X 3’ pieces of the boat floating. Hitting a piece at our cruising speed of 7.5 kts could do very serious damage; or puncture the hull. We plotted the location of the debris field and yup, it was right in our path. Several other boats were making the same trip and there was much discussion on the radio about which way to go to avoid the debris. I made the decision to do an arch of 10 miles around the area and headed east out to sea. We wound up appx 40 miles “off the beach”, which worked as nothing went bump in the night.


As the night progressed Trudie’s tooth got increasingly worse. He face swelled up and she looked like she had a golf ball in her cheek. She wanted to stand her watch, but I only allowed her to do so for a couple of hours…..she needed to rest and felt horrible. As we were at sea, there was nothing we could do but press on. (A cell phone doesn’t work much more than 5 miles out at sea)


We arrived in Charleston harbor at 8 am Saturday and T called the dentist who prescribed some heavy duty antibiotics and painkillers. (Painkillers are pills, not the famous rum drink….but that would have worked too !!) We laid low all day Saturday, relaxing from the overnight and hoping T’s condition improved.


On Sunday there was little or no improvement in T’s condition. This is when we began dealing with the second “headache”…..Hurricane IDA. We have been getting every update issued by the Hurricane Center (NHC). We are only 140 miles north of the FLA boarder and the remnants of the storm are predicted to pass just south of our position. Obviously, we are monitoring this situation very closely. Right now the forecast is for lots of rain, but only breezy conditions. Boy, we both hope the NHC is right !!


This morning (Monday) T’s tooth has gotten worse. The antibiotics are not helping and the swelling increased. There is a major medical/dental school and hospital a short distance from the marina. We intend to go there first thing this morning. We will let you know how T makes out. (We have only been in the South for a short while and T may already be having a tooth pulled out…..I know, she just wants to “blend” ! )

Hope we can cure both headaches today….anyone got an Advil ??

Underway

Hey......

We have spent the last couple of days in Southport, NC (Cape Fear) having a blast catching up with old friends, and making new ones.  There were just two negatives;  Trudie had to have a root canal and I celebrated my 60th birthday.  I put them in the same catagory !  We will fill you in on the details in our next post.

We are leaving around noon for our next offshore jump.  We will leave here for an overnight sail to Charleston, SC.  The trip will take approximately 18+ hours; so we plan on arriving in Charleston on Saturday morning.  This time we have a favorable forecast for nice weather with a good breeze coming over our shoulders so it should be ideal sailing conditions for a fast, safe trip. 

As usual we will be "off the grid" and unreachable until Saturday morning.  Follow along on Shiptrak.Org  (call letters N1ELQ).  We will be posting our position as time, power and weather permit. 

See y'all in Charleston !!   The Fateful Crew

Change of Plans....

Change of Plans.....due to weather forecast in the Cape Fear area, we have postponed our departure to early tomorrow morning.  The entry to Cape Fear is calling for winds gusting to 25 knts from the North.  After rounding Frying Pan Shoal (gotta love these names) we would have to turn northwest with an outgoing current until noon on Monday.  Too many negative variables, so we decided to stay here in Beaufort for another day.....how bad can that be? And, Trudie gets to watch the Yankess again tonite.  Win Win.

Next update will be by ham radio at the Shiptrack site.  

SNAP, CRACKLE, POP......

SNAP, CRACKLE, POP, SNAP, SNAP SNAP….!!!



“What the heck is that”? “Uhhh, I don’t know”? “Sounds like it is sleeting or freezing


rain bouncing off the boat.” “Can’t be….it 80 degrees outside, and the sound is coming


from UNDER the boat”. “Hey, it’s getting louder”! “What the +#@% is it” ????


SHRIMP !! SHRIMP ?? Yup, tiny shrimp eating the slime and growth off the bottom of the boat. They are really loud and have been munching on the bottom growth for the past three days. I didn’t think the bottom was THAT dirty…..well the feasting continues. Very strange…..another new one for The Crew.

We have really enjoyed our stay here in Beaufort, NC. (pronounced BO-Fort, not to be confused with the city of the same spelling in South Carolina pronounced BU-fort.) The town is small, but loaded with shops, bars and restaurants; many with outside dining and nightly entertainment. Simply we have had a blast, especially in a town which loves to celebrate Halloween:

This is Peter and Jane from "Kinvara"  Kinvara is a town in Ireland where Peter was born and raised.  We met Peter and Jane doing laundry in Annapolis and have been buddy boating with them down the coast.  They arrived yesterday, just in time for some Halloween libations!

Follow them along at http://www.kinvara43.blogspot.com/   They have done
a great job with thier site.

THE CREW partying on the docks in Beaufort:

What you can't hear is the "****kicking  band in the
background blasting southern rock and country.

Now we know were are really in the south !!


 But, we are ready to get underway after three days in port. We plan on leaving early afternoon for an off shore sail from here directly to the Cape Fear, NC area. This is a sail of approximately 80 miles. So, if we leave early afternoon, we will sail through the night and arrive at first light either at Masonboro Inlet or we will go directly to Cape Fear. (Nice, inviting name….) The decision will be made as we sail south and will be weather dependant.



We plan on spending a couple of days in Southport with Bob and Lori from “Pride”. We will arrive on the ten year anniversary of “Pride’s” departure from here directly to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. That 12 day offshore adventure is still the highlight of all of my sailing. We are really looking forward to spending some time with Bob and Lori catching up.


We will be incommunicado for appx the next 24 hours as we will be offshore and not in cell or internet range. We will be posting our position at Shiptrac. org.,  weather and circumstances permitting. Will post and let you know how our next “overnighter” offshore goes……


D + T Southern Express