A Great Day!

This morning we got up early and headed North. We were planning on just doing a half day and anchoring South of Georgetown, but when we got to our anchorage around lunchtime, the wind had piped up and the anchorage we had picked out was extremely choppy. With high tide still on our side, we opted to go ahead and press on towards Georgetown. We made it through the remainder of the shallows without incident and before we knew it, we were in the wide open river running by Georgetown.

We threw up our sails and killed the engine, eager to enjoy an afternoon of sailing. I had just settled in for a nap in the shade of the bimini when I felt the first flutter of movement from our little baby. The flutter turned to full on movement - apparently sailing was in his blood and he loved it as much as we did! He carried on for quite awhile as we made our way up past Georgetown. It was an all around fantastic day and we made it North of Georgetown, where we dropped anchor under sail along a wide stretch of the ICW. It was a perfect evening at anchor and we savored our final night out on the hook. Tomorrow we would stay at a marina.

The following day, we had a visitor bright and early when I took Koa out to pee. I snapped a few pictures of him as the sun was coming up.

Despite my early start, we had a leisurely breakfast and upped anchor by mid-morning. We had a great motor through some beautiful cypress swamps - the scenery was perfect. These waters were reputed to be some of the most beautiful on the ICW and we couldn't have agreed more. We even motored right by the building where we attended the wedding of some of our dear friends only 3 years before!

We made it to Osprey Marina in South Myrtle by early afternoon and tied up to the transient dock. The dock was quite a trek from the office, but that was of no concern to us because the dock master greeted us at our slip with a golf cart for our usage while we were there. Not only was that a first for us, but we were also given an awesome welcome bag - filled with information about the area, menus for the restaurants that delivered to the marina and some snacks and jars of locally made jelly. How's that for a welcome?!! This place was great!

We called Brad's mom and told her we had pulled in to a marina not far from her and would she like to come get us so we could all go out to dinner. We met up at the office and headed out for a nice dinner on land. We were happy to finally be close to our destination and turned in early for our last night on the boat.


Snapped some pics with our sailing mutt:

Let's try this Again!

8.13.15

Well, our first attempt to pass through Beaufort had proven unsuccessful and after spending two months waiting for our transmission to be repaired (that's what we get for having a Japanese tranny!), we were more than ready to head further North. By now, the Chesapeake and places further were beyond our reach and we were hoping just to make it to Little River to dock the boat and put her up for sale. With the new transmission installed and the engine aligned and mounts tightened, we were excited to head out. So, last Friday, we waited for the tide to be in our favor and then tossed the lines and were on our way! Or so we thought...

Unfortunately, the boat turned, kissed its bow to the dock and we literally just spun on our axis stuck to the dock so that we went from being tied up on our port side to being broadside on our starboard. Not knowing what was going wrong, but knowing that something wasn't right, I quickly switched the lines to the other side of the boat and made a jump for the dock. I got the bow line secure and by the time I made it to the stern of the boat, Brad was there to hand me the stern line. Hmmmm....not how we had imagined our departure going.

With the lines securely tied to the dock, we were able to look into the matter a bit more. We found that forward was reverse and reverse was forward. This happened because we had to flip a piece of the transmission to get it to fit into our engine compartment (which our repair guy assured us was ok to do). Well, we would have made do with that and just shifted in reverse for the trip until we could fix it, but we have a feathered prop, which means that it cannot go either way, it has to be set up in a certain direction. So, not only were we going in the direction, we had no control over the boat.

A quick call to our repair guy and we realized we were going to be in Dataw another four days. Fabulous. We put on our smiley faces and decided there was no reason to fret, we would just use the time to get a few boat projects done. We were hoping to wait until we got up to Little River, but it just wasn't meant to be. So, for the next few days we crossed a few items off our checklist.

Finally, after the repair guy drove down and fixed our transmission, we were ready to press on - for real this time we hoped! We left the dock at first light and off we went! We were so excited and both of us were holding our breath in hopes that everything would continue to run smoothly. Luckily, we had a fabulous day of motoring and made great time up the ICW. It was a long day and we didn't drop the hook until just before 7 (almost 12 hours later!), but we had made it to just South of Charleston and couldn't have been happier.

We enjoyed dinner in the cockpit and just soaked up the beauty of being at anchor, knowing that this is one of the last few times we will get to experience this. Tomorrow we head up past Charleston.

We were all excited to get back on the water:

Love this little copilot:

Brad ushering in the sunset:

As a side note, the whole time we have been stuck in Dataw, we have had the luxury of getting to know and spending time with the Hausers, Caroline and Rudy. Caroline is from Franklin and has known my Dad and his brothers for years. This is our first time meeting them (you will remember I wrote about her when we had lunch on the day we arrived in Beaufort) and we couldn't have asked for anyone more hospitable. They chauffered us around before we had our car, making sure we somewhere to do our laundry and taking us to the grocery store. They have invited us over for dinner at least once a week and have even come to pick us up via boat a few times! They have been our lifesavers and we just wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to both of them for all of their help! We would have had a hard time making it all work without them!

Space Coast

When we left Ft Pierce we headed inside up the ICW towards Melbourne, FL. It was a long day, but the wind was on our beam and provided some wind in our sails and a nice cool breeze throughout the day. We were able to jib sail a bit to help speed us along and take some of the strain off of the motor. We arrive in Melbourne around dinner time and were too tired to go in so we just enjoyed a peaceful evening anchored out in the ICW.

The following morning, we moved the big boat over closer to town and took Koa in for a much needed walk and to take a look around at "historic" downtown Melbourne. They have done a great job restoring the downtown area and there are many small shops and restaurants lining main street. The only problem was, unlike most Florida downtowns, there were no outside eateries. This meant that with Koa in tow, we were quite limited. After walking from one end to the other, we were ready for some lunch and so settled on this little casbah restaurant that had a guy playing some jazz on the saxophone on the patio. It was a perfect day for lunch outside and the ambiance was fantastic! We relaxed and stayed for quite a bit enjoying the scene and our delicious lunches.

After lunch and some lingering about, we headed back to the boat where we upped anchor and made our way just 10 miles North to Eau Gallie. Brad's aunt and uncle live here and we will be meeting up with them tomorrow for lunch.


Brad's aunt and uncle picked us up at a nearby dinghy dock and we all went out to lunch together - they are fantastic people and we always love stopping in to see them. And Carol always makes us delicious baked goods!! We had a great lunch together catching up on our travels and theirs and before we knew it, it was well into the afternoon. Time flies, and all that....
They were gracious enough to chauffeur us around to a few places so we were able to run a few errands before dropping us back off at the dinghy. Another fantastic visit in the books!
When we got back to the boat, we realized what a gorgeous day it was on the water and decided to take advantage of the evening wind with a sunset sail.

We upped anchor, threw out the jib and putzed our way North - not really sure where we would end up. We sailed for about three hours and decided just after sunset to stop and anchor, just South of Cocoa Beach. We hadn't made it far and we hadn't moved very quickly, but sometimes an evening with the sails up is just what the doctor ordered. And it had put at least a few miles dent into our trip to Titusville the following day.

The next day was just a motor - no wind, very hot high sun. But at least it was a short trip. We made it to Titusville in short order and went in with Koa to explore the area. A lot of boaters stop here because it is very affordable. And while we did find it to be affordable, we didn't find it to be cruiser friendly. The only anchorage has been turned into a mooring field (read: money maker) and there is a fee to tie up to their dinghy dock. The downtown is cute, but very small (2 blocks by 4 blocks) and there really isn't much going on. Perhaps there are more charming factors to this area if you have a car, but for the transient boater, it was a bust.

Up before the sun!

The following morning we were up before the sun to head North to Daytona. This was one of our longer days, at 50 miles of water to cover. Moving only about 5 knots, this is a full 10 hour day. It was a beautiful day though and there were manatees and dolphins everywhere!! And there was a shuttle launch from Port Canaveral that we got first row tickets for as we motored up the ICW. A bit disconcerting for sure as the Coast Guard was on the radio all morning warning mariners of falling debris!


Playful Manatees:

We made excellent time and anchored just South in Daytona around 4pm. Tomorrow we will head in to see what the area has to offer!