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
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
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
“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
Thursday, November 12, 2009
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
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
Monday, November 9, 2009
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 ??
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 ??
Friday, November 6, 2009
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
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
Sunday, November 1, 2009
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.
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
“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:
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
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