Hampton to Beaufort, NC

This summer was hectic. As you may remember we bought a condo. It is small, only two bedrooms and two baths with just over 1400 square feet. However, compared to our accommodations on the boat for the past five years, it is cavernous. We got our stuff back from Dave and Joan Wolf, the friends who have stored it for the past five years, and, needless to say, we ended up buying quite a bit of new furniture. Spot enjoyed running from one end of the condo to the other and Ann enjoyed playing in her new kitchen. Me? Well, we had this enormous wall just begging for a television. Once we had it, of course, I had to make sure it worked. It is fifty-three inches of Technicolor glory.



Three Intrepid Fishermen at Estes Park, CO

In addition to buying the condo, this summer we traveled to Estes Park, CO for a family reunion of sorts. Let’s see, there was my mother, my sister and her husband, Roger; her daughters, their spouses, and their children (I think that means my nieces, grandnieces and grandnephews). Then, there was our daughter, Lisa, and her youngest son Trent; our son, Tim, his wife Carry and our grandchildren, Caylin and Gavin. The whole purpose of the trip was to go trout fishing, and we did that. Sadly, we only caught four, two for Tim and two for me (mine were MUCH bigger), and enjoyed eating them. 

And then, of course, we prepared for departure. I’m sorry, I just gotta do it.

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again

Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again

And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way

And our way
Is on the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again

There’s more to the song, but I think you get the idea.

Yes, we are off again. Our intent was to leave Solomons, MD o/a 6 October, meander down the Bay (checking out our new and repaired systems along the way) and end up in Hampton, VA, which is located in the southern Chesapeake, on October 12^th so I could give a presentation on ICW travel to which I had previously committed. Because of Hurricane Matthew, however, we stayed in the condo until Tuesday 11 October, then we kind of zipped down the Chesapeake to Hampton with only one night on the hook.

In Hampton we attended the Hampton Snowbird Rendezvous (HSR). For boaters, a rendezvous is a gathering with boating-related seminars, cruising-related classes, and always social events! The HSR was no different. This time, however, rather than being just a participant I was also a presenter! In the first session, I gave a presentation on several topics that fall under the rubric of “Managing the ICW.” Tom Hale was in charge and he and Jeff Janacek gave the other 2/3 of the presentation. The second talk was on “ICW Troublespots, Places to Visit and Side Trips in South Carolina and Georgia.” I also led a small seminar for people interested in going to the Bahamas. Overall the event was a lot of fun and we met some interesting people, had a lot of good food and enjoyed the opportunity to learn. We met so many folks that I cannot hope to list them all. I would be remiss, however, if I did not mention Char Clark – the founder, organizer and “godmother” of the Hampton event – for all the work she does on behalf of Hampton, VA and the cruising community. Thanks, Char.

For those of you who don't think life is mostly about food,
think again. Here is our freezer packed with
victuals for our upcoming trip

During the rendezvous, we heard a knock on our door and it turned out to me Teri and Scott Miller, who we had met years ago in the Bahamas and later in Charleston on their boat Miller Time. The Millers have moved to Hampton and were out to dinner on the waterfront when they saw Traveling Soul. Hello again, Teri and Scott!! We hope to see you on our return north!

We took off right after the rendezvous, in part because we wanted to beat the rush out of Hampton. We had made reservations (as we always do) at the Top Rack Marina. Top Rack has the cheapest fuel prices in the area PLUS they offer a free slip if you eat at their restaurant. We think it is an excellent restaurant and really enjoy the food. So, cheap fuel, free dockage and good food; what’s not to love!!

After Top Rack, we locked through the Great Bridge Lock and passed under the Great Bridge Bridge (Don’t worry, I am not going to mention every bridge we pass – I just like writing about the Great Bridge Bridge (and yes, that is its name!)). We spent the night, anchored near a place called Broad Creek. There, we were attacked by thousands upon thousands of bugs. No, they were not noseeums – you could certainly seeum. There were so many hitting the boat that for a while we thought it was raining outside.  We have seen and reported on the Georgian Air Force (biting flies by the hundreds), now we know North Carolina’s response. The North Carolina Air Force consists thousands of seeums! They stayed with us all night and through most of the rest of the day. Apparently the wind we generated when we raced through the water at a scathing 9kts (~10 MPH) didn’t blow then off.

The next night we anchored on the Pungo River. I have discussed this anchorage before and the many reasons I like it, so I won’t talk about it here. What I will talk about is the dinner we had that evening. One of the things that happen when you get a new condo, a COMCAST subscription and a new 53” TV is that you watch television. Now, if you are too cheap to get some of the really cool channels, you end up watching a lot of the Food Channel. A lot. So, I have forgotten whether it was Giada or the Pioneer Woman (see what I mean? I even know the names of their shows!), but one of them made Gorgonzola Burgers. They looked good on TV and were even better on a plate.

Then it was on to Belhaven, NC. Ah, sweet, sweet Belhaven, the home of the Spoon River Artworks and Market. The first time we walked past the place, located in downtown Belhaven, we thought it was some sort of art studio. The next time we walked past, we saw tables arranged differently than any art studio we had ever seen – and different from any market as well. I am not sure when and how we figured out Spoon River was a restaurant, but that evening we had one of the best dinners we have had on the waterway. Every trip up or down the waterway, now, we look forward to re-visiting it. Yuuummmm!

We had planned on anchoring one more night, then meandering slowly into Beaufort (pronounced Bow-fort), NC and staying for a few days. The weather, however, looked like it might be on a different schedule than we were, so we decided to travel from Belhaven to Beaufort in one day. The day started out beautifully, but then, about 10:00 in the morning, the fog rolled in. Luckily we were in a pretty wide expanse of water and all I had to do was slow down a little, put on the running lights and flick on the radar. Then, as we came up to Goose Creek, we heard a tugboat on the radio that was in the creek pushing a barge and said he had zero visibility. HmmmmHHqqqH

 YIKES!, what to do, what to do, what to do. There was quite a bit of water at the mouth of the creek, so we decided to wait there until either the fog lifted or the barge came through. I called on the radio and told the boats behind me what I was doing and they all joined me in the wait. As luck would have it, though, we only had to wait about 20 minutes before the fog began lift and we all moved forward again. About the same time the tug came past and yes, I was right. It might have been kind of messy had we met in the middle of the creek where neither of us could see the other.

We stayed in Beaufort for a couple of days to let the weather pass. The first night we were there the wind whipped up to 40+ knots – over gale force – but we were hunkered down in the Homer Smith Marina. Shhhh, because this is a really nice marina and we don’t want everyone taking it over. It has large slips (since we have a pretty big boat, we really appreciate that), floating docks, a courtesy car that you can borrow to go to the grocery store, a drug store, hardware store, etc. PLUS, since the other half of the business is a shrimp processing plant … and they give you some free shrimp! We got about two pounds, which turned out to be about 60 very large shrimp. We ate the first 20 that night and they were scrumptious.

Oh, before I discuss Beaufort itself, I have to mention our diver. Before we left Solomons, we had a diver clean the bottom of our boat and replace our zincs.

First an explanation of zincs: Any time you have two different metals that are physically or electrically connected and immersed in seawater, they become a battery. Some amount of current flows between the two metals. The electrons that make up that current are supplied by one of the metals giving up bits of itself – in the form of metal ions – to the seawater. This is called “galvanic corrosion” and, left unchecked, it quickly destroys underwater metals. What we in the boating business do is to add a third metal to the mix. It is usually zinc and is called a “sacrificial zinc” because it dissolves before the shaft and other, more important parts of the boat do.

Anyway, our diver in Solomons was … not a very nice person (I was going to use other words, but Ann won’t let me.) He charged us $260 to clean the bottom and replace the zincs. I thought that was a bit high, but his cards were all around and we couldn’t find a card on any other diver.  The problem is that while he cleaned the bottom and put on one set of zincs, he didn’t have the shaft zincs on hand. He promised, therefore, to return and do it later. We went out and bought our own zincs, but you guessed it, we never saw him again.



Shrimp, More shrimp and red snapper from Beaufort, NC.

Now back to the Homer Smith Marina. When we were walking to the office we saw a diver. I talked to him and he agreed to put on our zincs – for $75. In fact, he said that it would be more economical for us if we paid him to clean the bottom AND do the zincs, because he would only charge $90 for that. WHATTT?!?!?! Ninety dollars in Beaufort compared to $260 back home? I don’t think we will ever again be using that diver in Solomons; and neither will any of our friends. Oh, and as we were talking afterwards, he asked if we liked fish. When I responded in the affirmative, he walked away and came back a few minutes later with a beautiful Red Snapper. I gotta tell you Beaufort people are my kind of people.

The marina was only about ½ mile from old town Beaufort, so we walked downtown. Beaufort is the third oldest city in North Carolina behind Bath and Edenton. In the early 1700’s Blackbeard and his ilk were frequent visitors to the city. It was right on the coast, had a wonderful inlet to the sea and had plenty of “diversions” for the pirates. In 1722, Beaufort incorporated and became a major trading center for the state and the country. It survived and thrived through the eighteenth and into the nineteenth centuries. Occupied by Union forces in 1862, the city was relatively unscathed by the Civil War. Over time, the city declined as a major regional trading center, but grew as a commercial fishing town. Today, while Beaufort has some trade and some fishing, it has become a tourist Mecca for North Carolina’s Crystal Coast.

In 1997, Beaufort was highlighted in national and international news as the wreckage of what is presumed to be Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, was discovered in 20 feet of water – 2 miles from Beaufort Inlet. Artifact recovery operations were immediately able to identify – and in some cases retrieve – many pieces, including the ship's bronze bell, cannons, and deck guns. Some of these artifacts are on display at the NC Maritime Museum.

In addition to the historical stuff, no tourist town worth its salt would exist without touristy shops – and Beaufort is no different. We dropped a bunch of money at an olive oil shop – OLIVE OIL for goodness sake. Well, I guess if it keeps the boat’s chef – and her sole customer happy – it is worth it.

Also in Beaufort, we met several cruisers. There was John and Pam on Short Vacation, Roger and Lorrie Aon Reality. In addition, our friends Shay and Elizabeth Glass from Escape came over from Morehead City for one of the docktail parties.

Finally, I got a cold. On the one hand that’s great – because I usually only get one cold per year and I have now checked that box. On the other hand, it does kind of slow one down. Oh well, we are on the road again!!!!

 SPOT’S NOTES:

Jmkn
JNNNNNNNNNNNN|m n7np[mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm=m –n\-============

ANN’S NOTE’S:  I guess I should explain the above sequence … when Michael leaves his computer open, one of Spot’s favorite places to sit is on is keyboard. She has to adjust herself to get comfortable and when she does, she types. Most often she just turns the screen to some obscure internet place that takes Michael a little while to correct. The solution is to close the lid but that would be no fun for Spot.

I am going to do this blog in what I call The First Mate Log … kinda like a Star Trek thing.

First I want to acknowledge and say Thank You to our son Tim for helping us settle in to our new condo. He took a weekend to help put Ikea furniture together and also got our new massive TV … bought and hung on the wall. He brought the family SUV … that TV was not going to fit in our two-seat Miata.

Another BIG thank you to our wonderful, patient and loving friends Dave and Joan Wolf. They really do make it easy for us to cruise and visit family. Not only did they take care of our belongings for five years, they are always by our side when we need help.  They love Spot and cat-sat for her while we were off on vacation in CO. The door to their home is always open to us and their hands always willing to put furniture together or move boxes.

We are more than Blessed to have such a support system … again thank you all.

Ok …Then…

SOME of our Fantasy Prints above our new sectional in our new condo.

Friday 1 July 2016 Settlement date and final walk through of Condo … spend all morning signing papers … we now own a condo!!!

July 2 and 3   Dave and Joan Visit … fun weekend

July 5    Order new sofa for condo … Clean carpets on boat (not easy to transport carpet machine in a little Miata … convertible top down to get machine in)

July 6   Start moving clothes and such to condo … Shop for Master and Guest room mattress

July 7 Pack for CO trip…Move food out of boat fridge to Condo…

July 8   Spend night at Dave and Joan…Get Spot settled into her new place at D&J’s  house

July 9   Moving company did a pre move inventory … sign contract for move

July 10 -27 VA-AZ-CO-CO-AZ-VA there is a whole other story behind all this travel…but not now.

July 28    Michael back to Maryland to check on Traveling Soul and Condo

July 29   I have Ophthalmology appointment in VA

July 30   Joan birthday, celebrate in Solomons, bring Spot back, bring some art work to condo

July 31   Start to think this may be a very busy summer with a very long to-do list that needs to be check off

Aug 1   Order master and guest room mattress

Aug 2    Order guest room furniture at Ikea … lock car keys in the car…yet another story within a story and again … not now

Aug 3   HSR first meeting on Traveling Soul … I went our shopping with Cristina Sisson…fun day.

Aug 4   Drive to D & J …

Aug 5   Moving day in VA and delivery day in MD … ong ass day to say the least

Aug 6   D & J bring Spot to MD … sofa delivered … mattress delivered … 10 boxes unpacked

And that, my friends, is just the beginning of all that needed to be done. The next few weeks was a blur of unpacking, organizing, trips to Target, to Bed, Bath and Beyond, to ACE hardware and the normal every day stuff like grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry. And the yearly doctors appointments and dental appointments thrown in for good measure.

The bottom line is…I love the condo in Solomons. The minute I walked into the space and told me this is Home, your land base for the summer. We have shared it with a few friends already and that makes me so very happy. We have started to build warm and lasting memories already. To all of our cruising friends, you are all welcome to come visit. Come stay in Solomons, I will cook you a meal from my fabulous kitchen, and I even do laundry while you sip your drink of choice.

I am glad to be cruising again, my heart is now divided between our beautiful Traveling Soul and our wonderful Condo.

Traveling Soul … OUT

After the ICW: 2016

After we completed the ICW for the ninth time, we reentered our home waters, the Chesapeake Bay. Sometimes we meander up the Bay visiting various venues along the way. This year, we decided to make only one stop because we wanted to get back to Solomons, MD by 5 June. Our one stop was at Cape Charles, on Virginia’s eastern shore, so we could visit Ann’s cousin, Ralph, and his wife Mary. Our visit was wonderful. We got to see the golf club where Ralph works part time (it was really beautiful) and to have lunch at the club’s restaurant. We also visited Ralph’s home in Machipongo, VA (try saying that three times fast!) All-in-all, it was an enjoyable day.


Ann and her cousin, Ralph

The first and last days of our stay at the Cape Charles marina were also pretty good. The first day the weather was decent, so after docking the boat we walked around the town, the marina and the beach. The middle days – or more precisely the middle nights – were absolutely terrible. When we docked the boat, the dockmasters put us on an outside “T” dock with our bow facing the marina and our stern facing the bay. The first night it was fine, but the second the third nights the wind picked up and slammed wave after wave into our stern and our swim platform. Since our stateroom (fancy nautical name for bedroom) was aft (fancy nautical term for “in the rear of the boat,”) it sounded as if guys with sledgehammers were pounding on the transom all night. Ann slept through it, but it got so bad that I had to go up to the salon to get away from the constant thump, thump, thump so I could get at least a little bit of sleep. If we can avoid it we will never again let dockmasters put us in with our stern facing the bay!

There was one other event that occurred while we were at Cape Charles, and it will shape my life forever. While exploring the quaint little town, we discovered a little place that served, among other things, lox and bagels. Oh my God! Now, I have had bagels before and have certainly had salmon, but all together with capers and cream cheese? Wow!  My life is now complete and I would change my religion if I could have lox and bagels every day.

I mentioned we wanted to get to Solomons by 5 June. The reason is because my West Point Class was holding a Remembrance Ceremony for classmates who had passed away this year. For the first time, my company of 24 men had someone die; in fact we had two deaths, Dallas Britton and Dave Marler. That, plus the fact that I knew know several other classmates who had died, made me really want to attend this year’s event. It also gave those of us who were still alive a chance to get together and meet with the immediate families of those who had passed away.  You know years ago we used to get together for weddings and other affirmations of life. Nowadays, we seldom get gather with family and friends anymore except for deaths and other kinds of tragedies. I was, of course, saddened by Dallas’ and Dave’s passing, but I was glad to see all our classmates and company-mates who could attend:

Facing us from left: Chuck Woodrow and Me.
On the right of the picture, you can see half of
Ron McConnell, the Steve Bothe's back and the
striped shirt of Phil O'Donnell. (The beer bottle seemingly hanging in
 the air is being held by no other than Ann.)

Chuck Kaylor
Mike Thompson
Steve Bothe
Doug Ferguson
Mark Tracy
Ron McConnell
Chuck Woodrow
Phil O’Donnell
Sandy Federico
Dick Atha
And, of course, moi.

Ron came from New York, Dick from North Carolina, Chuck Woodrow from California, Mark Tracy from Charleston, Sandy from New Jersey and Phil from Delaware. The rest of us were from the DC area. Ding Britton was also able to attend from Minnesota as well as Mary Marler and a few members of the Marler clan from Tennessee were also able to attend.

To get back on a more positive note, Ding, Dallas’ wife told me that Dallas used to look forward to getting and reading this blog. So, the good parts in this one are for Dallas. The bad parts are – as always – on me.

Doing the Unthinkable.

After the Remembrance Ceremony, Ann and I did the unthinkable. We bought a condo. If you will recall, five years ago we sold our house and most of our possessions and moved onto Traveling Soul. Our boat has been our home every since. Although we have loved (almost) every minute of it, we never intended to spend the rest of our lives on the boat. Living on the boat was part of a five-year plan. For the past five summers, though, we found ourselves stuck in the Chesapeake, primarily because of my foot operations, but also because – try as I might – I just couldn’t generate much enthusiasm for going north. We finally figured that if we were going to spend most of the summers in one place on the Chesapeake, we might as well spend them in a land-based structure, so we bought a small two-bedroom condo in Solomons, MD, a big boating community (go figure). Our new five year plan is to stay for six or so months in the condo, and six or so months on the boat – either in the Bahamas or on the way there. We have gone from full-time cruisers to snowbirds.

Just because we have bought a condo, however, does not mean that we are not going to go boating in the Chesapeake during the summers. In fact, before we closed on the condo, we decided to take a quick eight-day cruise around the Middle Bay. We headed to San Domingo Creek (behind St. Michaels), for two days, then to Annapolis for the weekend, to Rock Hall for a couple days, then took two days to get back to Solomons.

The trip from Solomons to San Domingo Creek was uneventful. We arrived mid-afternoon and enjoyed the scenery and the quiet. The following morning we were planning to go into the town of St. Michaels early in the morning, but it was raining. It wasn’t pouring, just raining hard enough to make traveling in the dinghy a non-inviting prospect. Luckily, however, about 1100 the weather started to break, the rain stopped and we headed into town.



A rainbow after the rain at St. Michaels

I don’t remember how long it has been since we visited St. Michaels, but the place sure has changed, especially the east side of town. There used to be (and still are) several touristy gift shops. At some point, however, those gift shops changed into restaurants. Previously, there were a few restaurants in the town, but not that many. Now they have a crepe shop, two Irish Pubs, several sandwich shops and others that have specialties of which we are not sure. Anyway, the east side of town is very different than it used to be.

After St. Michaels we cruised over to Annapolis. Again, there were changes for the better. When we first started visiting many years ago, the largest boats that could moor on their mooring balls were 45’. Then they determined that about five balls could hold boats to 55’; now they allow 55’ boats on ALL of their mooring balls. All of that is GREAT – with one possible caveat. I noticed that, while they have increased the stated holding strength of their mooring balls, they have not changed the tackle at all. In fact, the ball we were on employed a 5/8 inch line from the pennant to the ball. To be honest, on Traveling Soul we don’t use a 5/8 inch line for anything important; we use ¾ inch at a minimum. We do that because we don’t think 5/8 inch lines are strong enough to hold a 50’+ boat in place when there is serious weather.  I just hope they don’t find out the hard way that they should have upgraded their line.

Anyway, Annapolis, with the notable exception of the navel academy (no, I didn’t misspell it – that is the way it SHOULD be spelled), is a nice place to visit. We met our friends Dave and Joan Wolf who drove up from northern VA and stayed with us on the boat for a couple of days. Beside the fact that the Annapolis waterfront is definitely a party-place (the first night the boat behind us kept Ann awake until 0400; the next night I happened to wake up to cheers coming from the shore – at 0245) I think we all had a good time.

After Annapolis it was on to Rock Hall, MD. We had visited Rock Hall several years ago, on our former boat, Sans Souci. At the time the town was down on its luck with many of its businesses not doing particularly well. What it did have was a restaurant – a restaurant that we remember even after all these years. Its name was Osprey Point. And “yes,” the restaurant is still there and “yes,” it as good as it ever was. We split two appetizers and one entrée. It was just the right amount of food and everything was delicious. As Arnold said, oh so many years ago, “I’ll be back.”

We also met Judith and Paul, folks we had met in Jekyll Island last spring. They own a very nice B&B, but took time from their schedule to have a glass of iced-coffee with us. It turns out that they are looking forward to taking their boat back down the ICW and heading to the Bahamas next fall just like we are. We are sure we will meet them somewhere along the way.

After Rock Hall we pointed our bow back towards Solomons, spending the night at the Rhode River Anchorage. There had been some thunderstorm warnings earlier in the afternoon so we cruised pretty far back into the anchorage. No thunderstorms appeared, so we headed home the following day.

Well, next month we are going to close on our condo, buy some furniture and head out to Arizona and Colorado to visit my mom and other relatives and have something of a family reunion. After that, we’ll be back in Solomons to move into the condo and do some bicycling. In October we will be heading south with a quick stop in Hampton, VA to participate in the Hampton Snowbird Rendezvous, where we will be giving presentations on ICW Trouble Spots in Georgia and South Carolina, and on the Bahamas as a wintertime destination.

We’ll keep you posted along the way.

Ann’s Notes: As I recall I ended my part of the blog with a ‘cliff hanger’ about our little cruising cat.

One PO'ed cat after her dip in the drink

On Traveling Soul we have door screens that snap to the door frames from the inside. We have enjoyed them so much for several years, they let the nice breezes in while keeping all the bugs out.  The back sliding door screen is next to the bookcase, Spot can look out the door and window from the top of the bookcase; it is one of her favorite places to hang out on. Michael had gone out the sliding door and had to unsnap the screen to get out. I was at our table in the salon on the computer. All I heard was a very strange splash and a cat cry that I never heard before. Once my brain put all the sounds together, I was on my way down the stern ladder and on to the dock. Our sweet Spot, in all her feline glory had miscalculated the distance from the bookcase to the stern deck. The best we can figure is that she literally jumped off the boat from the bookcase, through the open corner of the screen and into the water. She managed to get out of the water and up on the floating dock, I did see her jump back onto the boat, through the snapped Starboard side screen. The jump was about five plus feet, soaking wet and pissed off. I got back on the boat, wrapped her in a towel and blanket. She was growling but not trying to get away, she was mad, cold and not a happy kitty. I am grateful that it happened where it did. Calvert Marina has no current to speak of and the Chesapeake has very little tide change, if this had happened in GA or Charleston with the fast current, we would have lost her in a blink of an eye. Spot only weighs ten pounds, when wet maybe ten and a quarter. So that is our story of Spots first swimming lesson and a happy ending.

We have been very busy since our arrival back in VA / MD. We also have a lot more to do. The condo is perfect for us and I am excited to have a land base once more.

Traveling Soul….OUT

Up the ICW, 2016: Part Two

After Darien, we were off to Beaufort, SC. (Remember the “Beau” in Beaufort, SC is the same as the “beau” in beautiful; the “Beau” in Beaufort, NC is the same as “beau” as in somebody’s boyfriend.) Usually, we stay at the Lady’s Island Marina in Beaufort, but this time, we decided to try someplace else for a couple of reasons. First, our friends, Mark and Becky board Sea Angel were not going to be at the marina. Becky was having surgery and they were going to be at the hospital in Savannah at the time we were passing through Beaufort. We wish them well – and wish Becky  a speedy recovery. We hope to see them the next time we pass through Beaufort. The second reason we wanted to try Port Royal was that, to be honest, we did not have a particularly good experience at Lady’s Island last year.  The dockmaster made several promises to repair, or at least take a look at, our malfunctioning radio. None of these promises did he honor. (Eventually, we got the problem fixed, but it was not because of the dockmaster.) Moreover, last year Lady’s Island Marina just expanded the marina. Under normal circumstances that would have been a good thing – we like to see marinas that we enjoy grow their business. However, we got stuck in the “new” area that did not have cable TV (the rest of the marina did), that was well over ¼ mile from the office (so anything you wanted required a hike), that was located away from the other transients visiting the marina (so we couldn’t meet new people), and whose state of repair was generally below par.
The Port Royal Marina was generally nice except for two little problems: (1) The wi-fi was pretty bad, and (2) it was RIGHT next to a major highway bridge – so we heard highway noises all night. That particular problem we solved by closing the windows and turning on the air conditioning, even though it wasn’t that hot. At least the A/C generated white noise that let us sleep!

Actually, there is quite a bit of history associated with the region. European history of the Port Royal region began in 1514 – over 500 years ago – when Spanish Captain Pedro de Salaza explored the area. His was the second expedition that landed on the North American continent, after that of Ponce de Leon who landed a year earlier. Moreover, Port Royal was the home of the first fort in North America; later, nearby St. Helena served as the first capital for Spanish interests in America. Sixteenth Century America is turning out to be a fascinating interplay of Britain, France, Spain and plenty of non-state actors in the form of pirates. Even more interesting is that much of it took place in the Southeastern United States along the coast and the banks of the major river systems – much of which is now the ICW. We may have to spend some more time around Beaufort next year exploring more of its history.

After Beaufort, we headed north. We bypassed Charleston this year and went on to McClellanville, SC. Now, McClellanville has special significance for me. For the five years we have been cruising the ICW (and I am sure for many years before that) the area around the town has been one of the ICW’s “trouble spots,” in that it the water around the town was VERY shallow. The Corps of Engineers (with local assistance) is supposed to keep the waterway at 10’, more or less, all the time. But around McClellanville, it was frequently closer to four or five feet. Virtually all sailboats had to play the tides and even boats like ours had to be very careful. In fact, yes, we did go aground outside of McClellanville one time, and we have touched bottom a couple of others. So, every time we passed the place I had to ask myself, “Why in the name of heaven would anyone want to go to a marina in a town that does not lobby its local and state representatives to dredge the waterway in the region?” And I was serious. I, for one, refused – as a matter of principle – to use the McClellanville marina.

Lo and behold, last year the local government put up some money, which, in turn, pressured the state to put up some money, which, when coupled with cash from the Corps of Engineers, was enough to dredge the waterway!!! Well, that being the case, we did not have any choice other but to dock at McClellanville’s marina. It was a first for us, and quite frankly could well be a last in that it isn’t much of a marina. I will say, however, that there are three things about the area that we really enjoyed. First, the local restaurant was pretty darn good! It wasn’t anything fancy, but served plain old fashioned southern country seafood – and it was down home good! Second, the town has a live oak tree that is estimated to be over 1000 years old. Think about it: the tree was nearly 500 years old when Columbus landed; over 850 at the end of the Civil War.  Wow! And finally, McClellanville  has one of those small local museums that are a treasure trove of information about the area and have really some cool local artifacts. Unfortunately, we were only able to spend an hour before it closed. IF we ever go back to McClellanville it will be to see the museum (and probably to eat at the restaurant) not to survive the local marina.

After McClellanville, it was on to Osprey Marina. We didn’t spend the night there, we only bought fuel. Although it was well under my $2.00 goal, it was 1.81 – still a little high if you ask me. After Osprey, we stopped at Barefoot Landing Marina in Myrtle Beach, SC where we looked at some of the T-shirt shops, etc.

Last year we had intended to stop at Carolina Beach to set up on their mooring balls and check out the area. Unfortunately, we got pre-empted by Tropical Storm Ana and had to go to a marina where we could wait out the storm. This year, we decided, once again, to give the mooring balls a try. The mooring field was quite good and the balls themselves well taken care of, so we downloaded the dinghy and headed into town. On the one hand, the town has definitely seen better days as there were night clubs and bars on the ocean right next to ice cream shops (the ice cream shops were still closed for the season, the bars were all open – regardless of the season). On the other hand, the town was trying to comeback by building a nice little boardwalk near the beach. I am sure it is a lot nicer in the summer when families are enjoying the area and the beaches, but in mid-April, it was kinda dead.

A few miles up the Cape Fear River from Carolina Beach is Wilmington, NC. Last year, at the Annapolis Boat Show, we received an offer of a free three-day stay at xxx Marina. The problem with the marina is that it is across the bridge and about two miles from downtown Wilmington. I now, I know, you are wondering why we didn’t just hop in the car and go downtown – well, of course, we don’t have a car. What we did do was meet with our daughter, Lisa’s, best friend from high school (yes, that was a few years ago). Beky took Ann out to run a few errands and catch up on times past. And yes, Lisa, we now know more about your high school years than you would care for us to know! Overall, Wilmington seemed like a nice town. We did not get to take advantage of its sights as the marina where we stayed was just too far from downtown. If we go again – and we might – we will be staying at the city docks which are right on the local waterfront. 

Every year that we travel the ICW -- whether going up or coming down – we stop at Belhaven, NC. You are probably thinking that it is the birthplace of a famous author, philosopher or scientist to whom we want to pay homage, or that there is some sort of religious significance attached to Belhaven. Nope. It’s food. Spoon River Artworks and Market, believe it or not, is is a restaurant in downtown Belhaven that invariably has one or more extraordinary dishes made of local fare that would contend with some of the high end restaurants at which we have eaten in New York and Washington, DC. This year we started with a Quail Egg Brochette as an appetizer. Ann then had a Cornish game hen with potatoes and something else while I had seafood paella with lobster, scallops and shrimp. Everything was scrumptious!!! Often we anchor out when we go to the restaurant because Belhaven has a very nice anchorage. This year, however, we tried a new marina, the River Forest Marina, which is just out of town. The docks were adequate and we met several people we would not otherwise have met. We’ll have to wait until next year to see if we return to River Forest – but I can guarantee we will visit Spoon River!!

After Belhaven it was on to Elizabeth City. Elizabeth City, NC bills itself as “The Harbor of Hospitality.” Although we have been treated hospitably almost everywhere we have gone, in Elizabeth City they held an event, hosted by the mayor, with free wine and where they gave each of the ladies present a rose from the City. Moreover, the city has about 14 slips that are free to transients and several other locations on the waterfront offer free dockage. In short, Elizabeth City certainly is one of the most hospitable places we have been.

We went to Elizabeth City so see one of my West Point classmates and company-mates, Dick Atha. Dick was the quarterback of the football team back in the days when Army actually beat Navy once in a while. It was great catching up with Dick and getting his perspective on why Army football has been so poor over the past decade or so.

In addition to being the city where Dick Atha lives, Elizabeth City is also the gateway to the Dismal Swamp Canal. As the US Fish and Wildlife Service points out:

Human occupation of the Great Dismal Swamp area dates back some 13,000 years, 4,000 years before the formation of the swamp began. By the time European colonists arrived, the area had acquired its swamp-like character and it was here that they met the Nansemond Indians, who inhabited the western edge of the swamp.

In 1728, William Byrd II, charged with surveying the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina, proposed draining the swamp, selling the timber, and using the land for agricultural purposes. It would be 40 years before several prominent Virginians, including George Washington, founded the Dismal Swamp Land Company in an effort to implement Byrd's plan. The company did not succeed with the agricultural venture, but commercial harvesting of the swamp's resources had begun.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Great Dismal Swamp served as a refuge for African-Americans escaping slavery. Historians believe these people established maroon communities in the swamp and used the swamp as both temporary and long term shelter. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Harriet Beecher Stowe found literary inspiration in the swamp and the slaves hiding there.

We had completed the canal once before. It was fairly shallow back then and remains so to this day. We probably won’t be going on it again as we touched bottom several times and for a short period of time even had something we picked up off the bottom (vine? fishing line? someone’s rope? Give the boat a vibration. I thought we were going to have to find a diver to take it off, but luckily it seemed to work its own way off the prop after a ½ hour or so. The Canal is fun, its kitschy, it’s interesting, but it also isn’t for us.

And that’s how we finished the ICW. On our next iteration, I’ll talk a little about our trip to Cape Charles, to the Solomons, and our projected maintenance – oh yea, and our new condo.

Ann’s Notes: I know Michael wants to get this blog out…I did read it and I think it is good to go.

Just one addition, when we had dinner in Belhaven and having dinner we were with another cruising couple. Kay and Charlie from Plane 2 Sea, we have met them several times at several different locations – and almost all included food. They are a fun couple to spend time with.

We have so much to do… My mind is working in a forward time span right now. Thinking back on the ICW cruise seems like a long time ago, I loved it and had a wonderful time.

Thank you for reading…our adventure continues…

Traveling Soul…OUT

Oh wait…Spot is happy and well… and took her first unauthorized swim. More on that later…

Up the ICW: Stage One

We arrived in Palm Beach on 18 March and stayed for just over two weeks. We stayed primarily because we really like the area. We (meaning me) like the weather and the number of places we can go to get inexpensive boat supplies. We also (meaning Ann) know the malls, the grocery stores, the Targets, the Bed, Bath and Beyonds, etc. We generally stay at Old Port Cove Marina. They have a decent monthly rate and the ladies there have come to know us as well as we know them. We have already made reservations for next December when we plan on heading down and leaving the boat for a month or so while we go back home for Christmas.

When we arrived at the marina, they put us right in front of the restaurant. Now, this isn’t the fanciest of restaurants, but it is a nice one and we wanted to put our best foot forward. Unfortunately, all the boats next to us were not used by the owners very much were spic-and-span. And there was Traveling Soul who looked like she had been “rode hard and put away wet.” We had cleaned her once in the Bahamas, but since then she had cruised through many miles of salt spray, been used to catch fish, had been south of the tropic of cancer and generally had a coat of grease and grime on her. So, you are thinking that the first thing we did was give her a good-old-fashioned cleaning, right? Nope, not this time; this time we PAID for her to get a good-old-fashioned cleaning. The cleaners did not do as good of a job as Ann and I would have, but at least we weren’t embarrassed to have Traveling Soul right outside the restaurant.

Before going on, I should probably finish the saga of the watermaker. Now you are probably thinking, “Why is he such a cheapskate? If they need a new watermaker, why don’t they just buy one?” Well, I have a pretty good reason … actually, I have about six thousand good reasons; that’s right, six boat units; six grand, six thou, six Grover Clevelands – in short a boatload of money. I had decided that if we could get the old one fixed for about two grand that we would do it; otherwise, it would be a new one.

The repairman, John, decided that it might be the membrane assembly, so he took it back to the shop, tested it and everything worked well. If it wasn’t the membrane, then it might be the high pressure pump. It was going to cost some serious money to rebuild it, but that was John’s next best guess. He rebuilt it and it, too, seemed to be working on the shop bench. Well if it wasn’t the pump and it wasn’t the membrane, then maybe some air was getting in the fittings between the thru-hull and the pump. He replaced most of those and tried again. It still wasn’t working. Finally, because he was at a total loss as to what to try, he called his boss. His boss suggested that he take the pre-filter out of the system and see how it ran that way. John was convinced that wasn’t going to work, but since he had his boss on “speaker” when the suggestion was made, he felt he had to try it. You know what happened. It worked perfectly. 

Sometimes Spot just wants to
relax -- even when the
boat is underway

I have to explain. The pre-filter is one of those little paper accordion filters that you might use on your hose. You can buy them in various sizes, from 5 microns thought, at least, 30 microns. When you put a 5 micron pre-filter on a system that really needs 30 microns, the filter clogs up and water can’t get through. Now, most modern watermakers are made to exacting specifications and have low tolerances – thus, John thought we needed a 5 micron pre-filter. As soon as we figured out that it really needed a 30 micron filter it became pretty obvious – older watermakers did not have the same exacting specifications as newer ones. Our 30 year old pump could easily handle 5 – 30 micron impurities, what it could not handle was a clogged filter that would not let water through. What is that old saw? “For want of a nail, a shoe was lost …” In our case, for want of a *&&*()8^$@ 30 micron paper filter, 2 Boat Units were dropped. AARRGGHH!!!

After re-provisioning in Palm Beach and getting re-accustomed to the land of big grocery stores and cable TV, we made some repairs and improvements to our internet connectivity. First, we replaced our wireless router. Our old router just wasn’t putting out much of signal anymore. We couldn’t get it at the printer, just one deck below the router, and couldn’t get it at the salon table (where we do most of our computing), so we replaced it with an inexpensive NETGEAR router. Additionally, our Verizon aircard (technically, I think it was a wireless modem) was not working as well as it once did, so we replaced it with a Verizon Jetpack. With those two modifications, we are now up and can be on-line most of the time.

Two weeks and four days later, we had formulated our campaign plan for heading up the ICW. We decided we would:

·         Control costs by

o   Anchoring as much as we could

o   Take on fuel only at the least expensive locations along the waterway

·         Visit some specific locations, including

·         Visit targets of opportunity along the way

·         Arrive in Solomons, MD on or about 5 June

And then we were off. Our first stop was at the Loggerhead Marina at Vero Beach, primarily because they have good fuel prices. It worked out to $2.03 per gallon – a little higher than my $2 goal, but the best we could find in southern Florida. As it turns out, in the slip next to us there was a retired Army officer, Carol Doyle and his wife Roberta who live aboard their boat Miramare who said there were three others retired Army officers in the marina. We had a drink and lot of fun with them. We’ll try to see them again next year.

After Vero it was off to see our friends Tom and Cristina aboard their boat Tadhana. We like Tom and Cristina and we like Cocoa Beach where they were staying. We met for lunch at Ryans – which has the best “white” pizza we have had in a long time. In addition, Cocoa also has the biggest hardware store I have ever seen; it occupies seven buildings in the historic district. Needless to say, we always go there with a list of stuff we need to buy.

We then took two days to get up to Saint Augustine and stayed on a mooring ball there for three nights. Why Saint Augustine? Because it is just about our favorite city on the ICW. We have been here three or four times and every time we see and learn more about the city. This time we visited a for-profit “Archaeological Park” that actually had a number of interesting exhibits. Did you know, for example, that Ponce de Leon (of "fountain of youth" fame) was on Columbus’ second voyage? And that Ponce was the first European to set foot on the continent of North America -- despite what any of those Limeys may tell you? Ann went to see Flagler College. Did you know there are 79 Lewis Comfort Tiffany windows in the college’s dining room? There are other places we still have to visit. Next time I really want to go to the Ripley’s “Believe it 0r Not” Museum .

The dining room at Flagler College.
It used to be the dining room at Flagler's
 "Ponce de Leon" Hotel.

After Saint Augustine our plan was to proceed up the coast to Cumberland Island. As is the case with most of these places, we have been here before and just love the place. It combines elements of history with nature in combinations that are difficult to describe and always interesting. However, the closer we got to Cumberland the worse the weather sounded, and since we would have been anchoring at Cumberland we decided to skip this particular island and head to our next destination, Jekyll Island.

We have written about Jekyll in the past. Although the weather was as forecast (terrible for the first several days), we did manage to accomplish one goal we did not achieve last year. We saw an alligator in the wild! Actually, we saw two of them. One was about 5 feet long and no more than fifteen feet or so away from us. The other was on the other side of the pond and was about 12 feet long. We also took the tour of the cottages, ate at the Rah Bar. We also went to the Crane Cottage for lunch with our friends Kay and Charlie from Plane2Sea. We also bicycled, shopped (well, actually, Ann shopped), and took the marina’s golf cart to the grocery store.

After Jekyll we made a short stop at Brunswick Landing Marina for diesel. It costs (are you ready for this?)  One Dollar and Sixty-Five cents per gallon. Now, this won’t mean anything to those of you who don’t cruise the waterway, but Sheri was fired. Now Sheri was an institution at Brunswick Landing. She was built like a football player, had the mouth of a sailor and had two dispositions. If she liked you, she was a real sweetheart; if she didn’t she could be a real (witch – w + b) – if you get my drift. Since Sheri liked us (actually, she liked Ann and tolerated me), we sometimes stayed at Brunswick to make sure we stayed on Sheri’s good side.

The blockhouse at Fort King George in Darien, GA

After Brunswick, we went to Darien, GA. Darien has a free dock where you can moor your boat for up to two nights. We had wanted to go last year, but when we were ready the town was in the midst of their annual blessing of the shrimp fleet. Apparently it is quite a shindig in that there were no slips available.  We went there this year with three items of significance. First, we visited Fort King George, a state historic site. From 1721 until 1736, Fort King George was the southern outpost of the British Empire in North America. A cypress blockhouse, barracks and a palisade earthen fort were constructed in 1721. For the next seven years, His Majesty’s Independent Company garrisoned the fort. They endured incredible hardships from disease, threats of Spanish and Indian attacks, and the harsh, unfamiliar coastal environment. After the fort was abandoned, General James Oglethorpe brought Scottish Highlanders to the site in 1736. The settlement, called Darien, eventually became a foremost export center of lumber until 1925.

Second, we bought two pounds of just-off-the-boat shrimp! That evening we cooked them on the grill and loved them. Third, though we did enjoy the stay at a free dock, we scratched the hull pretty badly. I am sure that it will cost us a couple hundred bucks to get it fixed – a little more than a slip would have cost. It just goes to show …

It is absolutely impossible to capture via photo or in words the stark beauty of the Georgian marshlands. Imagine this view 360 degrees around you. It is really cool.

In just a minute we are going to close out this entry. But before we do, I want to say something about the anchorages where we have stopped. You will note that we have discussed only those locations where we had something specific to do, or those marinas about which we had something specific to say. We have not discussed the many anchorages that lie in between. I love anchoring and I can honestly say that I enjoyed almost all the anchorages at which we stayed. There are a number of reasons. First, we get to sit back and enjoy nature. One of our anchorages this year was in an ancient cedar swamp; another was in the marsh lands of southern Georgia and yet another was among the abandoned rice fields of South Carolina. Trying to describe the surroundings of these anchorages is nearly impossible. All of them are, in their own way, marvelous. From many of them you can see for miles in any direction and not see a soul. Imagine sitting on our flybridge on a beautiful 75 degree day, with a nice, cool drink in one hand, barbecuing freshly-caught shrimp with the other and listening to some groovy (yes, I did use that word!) tunes from the 1960’s on satellite radio. Although each anchorage is different, the “chillaxed” feeling you get from anchoring on almost any one of them is absolutely wonderful.

Ann’s Notes: I know you must be surprised seeing me put my two cents in..I know I skipped the last blog. I did proof read the last one and Michael writes and described the events so well I had nothing to really add.

Our stay at Old Port Cove, as usual was nice. I really do like the Palm Beach area and I do know my way around. Plus Spot’s vet is there so she got her annual shots and check up. She is fully grown, on the small side for a cat, she only weighs ten pounds. Her personality which is larger makes up for her smaller size. She is the perfect boat cat, I am so glad she is part of our lives.

While we were in Palm Springs we replaced the anchor chain. Our old chain was yucky and rusting. One would think in a boating community that replacing  220 feet of chain would not be a problem. Oh…not so fast matey…it was a two day project on the phone finding the correct size of chain for the windlass and the length needed. As it turned out …West Marine had to special order it …once ordered we had to pick it up in the rental car. We always get the economy size car from Enterprise, so needless to say it is on the smaller side. Now 220 feet of rolled up chain weighs about 330 pounds. I know this because I Googled it. 3/8 chain weighs about 1.5 pounds per foot…I did the math for you. Michael and I had to handle lots of chain. Remember we had to get the old chain off the boat and put the new one on, that involved taking Bertha off the end of the old chain. Let us just say it became a two day project with lots of chain moving. Gotta love cruising to do all this.

Our trip up the ICW has been wonderful. The weather has pretty much been good, a little on the cool side. That just makes sleeping at night much more pleasant. The bugs that love me and leave makers are still plentiful but I have enough anti bug stuff on board to counter act those nasty insects.

I saw one thing in a little southern country store in Darien GA. They were selling local honey, I picked up the bottle to see where the honey was from and what types of plants the bees used to make the honey. The type of plants will give the honey a distinctive taste. So I am reading the label and I start to giggle..on the bottle; it read, “our bees are all free range bees” I guess it is hard to keep bees from not wandering off.

Traveling Soul…OUT

Long Island and the Bahamas

After letting Dave and Joan off in George Town, we stayed in the area for a few days so we could rest, recuperate and re-provision. Now George Town is a busy place. There are usually about 300 boats at anchor in the Harbor and a “Cruiser’s Net” every morning (on VHF channel 68) to tell resident cruisers what is going on and where. Since we were there during the preparation and run-up to the Annual Cruiser’s Regatta, there was more activity and radio traffic than usual – a lot more. Now, Ann and I think Regattas are fine, but when they are stretched out over a week and there are only one or two regatta events per day (in none of which we are participating), the constant radio traffic can get a little tiring. So, since we really had nothing to do with the regatta, we decided that we would leave George Town the day it started and move on to Long Island!!

This year, one of our goals was to go further east and further south than we had gone before (kind of like the personnel of the Starship Enterprise: we wanted “to go where no Brown had gone before.”) When we reached Long Island we had succeeded. We were beyond the Tropic of Cancer; we were in unexplored regions! Long Island held three adventures for us. Let’s just call them … the Good … the Bad … and the Ugly.

The Good

This sign marks the Tropic of Cancer

We arrived in Thompson’s Bay, Long Island on 27 Feb. Thompson’s Bay is a pretty good anchorage; it has excellent protection from the east and north, some protection from the south and a even reasonable amount of protection from the west. True, you would have to move around a little if the wind got overly rambunctious, but while we were there, it generally behaved itself. Thompson Bay is a popular anchorage. When we arrived there were about fifteen other boats already there – many, like us, were refugees from the regatta. Fifteen boats may seem like a lot, but the Bay is very big and could hold many times that number, plus we had just left George Town with 300 boats at anchor. To be in an anchorage with only 15 boats was like a dream.

Thomson Bay abuts the settlement of Salt Pond, which is almost exactly half way down the island. That’s important because the southern half, everything below Salt Pond, was devastated by last year’s Hurricane Joaquin. Many of the cruisers in Thompson’s Bay are frequent and long time visitors to Long Island and, while we were there, had one or more projects on-going to assist in the island’s recovery. I will say – even though I probably shouldn’t – that the cruisers seemed to be doing more for the island’s infrastructure than the local residents were. Jus’ sayin’.

Long Island is … well … long. It is about 80 miles long and 4 miles wide at its widest point. It is about 230 sq mi. in area and it is located 165 miles southeast of Nassau. The Tropic of Cancer runs through the northern quarter of the island. Its original inhabitants, the Lucayan Indians, called it “Yuma.” Most historians and archaeologists believe that Columbus visited the island on his first voyage (1492) after stopping at San Salvador and Rum Cay. It was then that he rechristened the island “Fernandina” after King Ferdinand. After the Spanish rounded up all the Lucayans and took them to Hispaniola and Cuba to serve as slaves, there was no large settlement of anyone until the arrival of the Loyalists during and after the American Revolution.

The original Loyalists were mainly from New England and New Jersey arrived on Long Island after fleeing the American Revolution. These families started the first farms, raising primarily cattle and sheep. By the 1790s, settlers began to arrive from the Carolinas and proceeded to set up cotton plantations. The plantations flourished for only a few years and, by the time of the abolition of slavery in the Bahamas in 1834, most had collapsed and been abandoned. There are many ruins from this era today, none of which have been taken care of, and the majority are overgrown by bush.

Friends had suggested that the best way to see the island was to rent a car for two days. On day one, they suggested, we go south and on day two, north -- that way we would be able to see most of the island in the most efficient way possible. We rented a car and headed south. There were three highlights to the trip south.



Sixteenth century Spanish mission
located on the side of the road.

The first was a 16^th century Spanish mission. Now, in the States, if there were a 16^th century church there would be signs pointing to it off the highway, signs explaining what you were seeing and either the local Catholic Church or a volunteer association would raise money for the site. In the Bahamas, by contrast, you have to keep your eyes open as you drive down the highway, otherwise you would miss what looks like a derelict building just off the only highway on the island. I have no doubt that a serious archeological effort could lead to some interesting results, but I am not sure one has ever been attempted and there are few signs that anyone is seriously interested. The second highlight on our trip south was “Dean’s Blue Hole.” Dean’s is a 600 feet deep hole in the island that is filled with sea water. It is about twice as deep as most other blue holes in the Bahamas and elsewhere. Dean’s is famous as the location of several free-diving world records and was the host of the 2009 free-diving championships. It is really kind of cool! The third highlight was the Flying Fish Marina in Clarence Town. It was modern, had a really good bar and grill attached, and looked to be a first class marina



This is Dean's Blue Hole. At the swimming platform,
it goes 600 feet straight down.

After Clarence Town, however, it did not look as if there was going to be much to see further south. So, while we drove another thirty or so miles, we eventually turned around and headed north. Although our goal was to see the Columbus monument at the northern tip of the island (about which, more later) we only went as far as the Tomb and grave marker of Louisa Morris, the daughter of John Morris, plantation owner and slave holder in the late 19^th Century. The grave marker had apparently been stolen in 1999, but since then had been returned to the Bahamas. The Bahamian government built a nice little monument to the Morris’, though it is way back in the bush!

By this time we were kind of getting tired of driving and headed back to Salt Pond to turn the car back in.

The Bad

You may recall that we had been having trouble with our watermaker for several weeks. After I replaced the membrane at Staniel Cay, it worked fine. While Dave and Joan were visiting it worked okay initially, but after a week or so, it started misbehaving again; it would run for about an hour, then turn off. We could still produce water, it was just a slower process. As time went on, though, the length of time between failures constantly decreased. By the time we got to Thompson Bay, it was only running for about ten minutes before the alarm went off and we had to turn it off. Hmmmm. This was not good.

We decided we would go to the nearest marina, Stella Maris Marina in northern Long Island. There, I would take apart the watermaker to see if I could fix it. (I wasn’t overly hopeful, but I had replaced the membrane – and maybe, just maybe, I hadn’t replaced all the fittings correctly. If that were the case, I might, indeed, be able to repair it). Even if we couldn’t get it fixed, we figured, we could fill up with water at the marina and then decide what to do.

Spot pointing out an error I was making in
Watermaker repair

Stella Maris was a marina in name only. I reviewed it in Active Captain (kind of like a “Trip Advisor” for the cruising crowd) and wasn’t very kind. All of that aside, our immediate problem was that I could not fix the watermaker AND they did not have reverse osmosis water – they used cistern water. We are very particular about what goes into our water tanks and salty-tasting cistern water wasn’t going in.   

When I was in the Army there were times when we would get a couple of quarts of water per day – and it was for drinking only. You could use it for teeth-brushing or shaving if you had to, but that came out of your drinking stock. We didn’t shower and didn’t wash our clothes. We ate out of cans and licked our plastic spoons clean. We seldom cooked anything with water and certainly didn’t have ice for happy hour. In short, I know how little water a person really needs. We also know that there are some purist sailors who guard their water almost as jealously as infantrymen. They bathe and wash dishes in salt water and use fresh water for cooking only when necessary. Given all this, I know that it is absolutely true that if you put your mind to it, are willing to stink to high heaven, to taste salt in everything, to eat out of cans and never to wash your clothes, that you can save enormous amounts of water. However, I am now just a little older than I was in my twenties and am used to a certain style of living, e.g. occasional showers, plenty of drinking water, well-cooked meals, clean dishes and, oh yea, ice for my 5 PM cocktails.

Still, Ann and I are pretty good at rationing water and can easily live – and live well – with twenty gallons per day and even less of we had to. However, at Stella Maris we had only about 75 gallons in our tanks (our tanks can carry about 200). Moreover, there are very few marinas in the outer islands of the Bahamas. So, while we could certainly explore the rest of the islands we wanted to see, we would be constantly tethered to some very specific marinas – those that had good water. So, we decided that our broken watermaker was a sign that we should turn back – so we did.

From Stella Maris we headed north to Cape Santa Maria (which has a beautiful resort and beach, by the way), then back to Emerald Bay Marina to get some water and to wait for a weather window so we could go north and start the trip back to the good old USA. After Emerald bay, we stopped at White Point, Black Point, Norman Cay and Highbourne. It was on this trip, from Emerald Bay to White  Point that we caught a Black Fin Tuna! It was only about 14-15 inches long (about two meals)  and was relatively easy to clean. I will say, however, that we are still struggling with a  good recipe for black fin. Anyway, we stopped at White Point and most of the other islands to wait for weather so we could make the next leg of the journey, but we stopped at Highbourne because of the restaurant. It is as good as I remembered!

A blackfin tuna.

After Highbourne, it was on to Nassau. We only stayed a couple of days and only went downtown once. We have “been there and done that” several times in the past and didn’t think we needed to visit again. After Nassau, on the way to Chub Cay, I’ll be damned if we did not catch yet another mahi-mahi. We were much better at filleting the fish this time and were in an anchorage where we could throw the waste overboard.  In case you are counting this is mahi number two and fish number three. After a night at Chub, we were off to Bimini. Usually when we go to Bimini, we head to Brown’s marina -- for obvious reasons – then on to Fort Lauderdale. This time we decided that we wanted to go from Bimini to Palm Beach, which is a little over 100 miles. Even though we would have the Gulf Stream with us, we fissured we might want to leave before dawn. The channel into and out of Bimini can be a little complicated – especially at night – so we decided to anchor just off the northeastern tip of the island so we could get a good jump on the following day.

We have, of course, run the boat in the dark many times in the past. Nevertheless, it constantly amazes me how different night boating is from day boating. The night before we took off, I had examined the sea closely and there was nothing surprising; everything was on the charts and on the radar. Shortly after we left, however, at about 0400, I was sure I saw some lights about a mile out. What were they coming from? Was there a marker I had overlooked? Even worse, could there have been a shallow area close to our proposed route? I turned the boat to make sure we would not come close to whatever was out there and proceeded very cautiously. In the event, there were lights out there, but there were not a mile out, they were about five miles out; they were not buoys or markers, they were from another boat. Oh well, it was a little nerve-wracking, but not at all dangerous.

Mahi Number Two!

We then hit the open ocean and eventually the Gulf Stream. The stream propelled us 2 ½ to 3 knots faster than we would otherwise had gone. We arrived at Old Port Cove Marina at 1430, had a beer to celebrate the end of this Bahamian Adventure and our return to the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Then, we started planning the trip northward on the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Ugly

Actually, there was no ugly … it just sounds so much better than saying there was good and bad J