We had good northerly winds to blow us down the coast
BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA
We had a great Thanks Giving diner, with turkey & pecan pie, on board Valkyrie with Shaun, Gerry, Karen, Kari, Ryan & Hailey
Santa arrives by boat
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
Old Town Charleston has some beautiful old houses
So does the French Quarter
We explored the Old Town on our bikes
Drayton Hall Plantation
"One" of our provisioning trips.......
This is a yacht decorated as a Christmas tree for the Christmas Boat Light Parade
It was -5 degs C when we left Charleston, imagine what I was wearing......
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Dry dock for the Navy
A pushing tug on the St Johns River
The lifting bridge opened to let us through to Down Town Jacksonville
We had free dockage outside "The Jacksonville Landing" which is a hub of restaurants & bars
Our view of the setting sun at the dock
Night view of the lifting bridge from the dock
The Atlantic Coast has lovely long sandy beaches like this one at Jacksonville Beach
We took a trip to Tampa to meet up with Mandy, she arranged a special viewing of the bridge, it pays to have friends in high places.....
From Autumn Leaves to Palm Trees
Well the past few weeks have been rather hectic, we've gone from autumn leaves to palm trees, which translates "from -5 deg C to +25 deg C".
We some good fast sails down the coast from Chesapeake to Jacksonville, Florida & even had the spinnaker up going past the notorious Cape Hateras, however we did have a hard slog into Beaufort, North Carolina, the last 20nmls from Cape Lookout took 6 hours. We spent Thanks Giving (25th November) in Beaufort & had a wonderful traditional turkey dinner on board Valkyrie (an American yacht) with Ryan, Kari, Sean & Hayley, along with their other guests Gerry & Karen. Beaufort is a small quaint touristy town with a lovely quiet anchorage. Our Austrian friends Ian & Lee-Anne arrived on their catamaran, Windwalker, while we were there. They had come down the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW), a series of connected waterways that run down the east coast from Chesapeake to Florida. A lot of boats use this waterway so they don't have to go off shore down the Atlantic coast & therefore safer. However the ICW passage is a lot slower as you can't sail & you can only travel during daylight hours as there is a big risk of running aground even during the daytime. The ICW was not an option for us as there are a number of bridges to pass under & our mast is too tall for some of them. Ian & Lee-Anne accompanied us on the next leg down the coast to Charleston, South Carolina. Our anchorage here proved to be one of the worst we've experienced.There was a strong current running up to 6knots at times & we couldn't go ashore here for the first 3 days as the wind was howling through the anchorage. When the wind was against the tide the boast were sailing around in all different directions doing 360's & several boats dragged anchor - including Saliander. This is the 3rd time we have dragged anchor this year& we finally realised that we had an issue with the anchor from when we had it galvanised in August, they replaced the lead weight with zinc, which we've now realised is 40% less weight..... A lot of people told us how nice Charleston is & we weren't disappointed. The big old houses in the Old Town & French Quarter have been beautifully preserved & the horse & carts that carry the tourists around the streets complete the picture. We hired a car with Ian & Lee-Anne to visit the Drayton Hall Plantation where they used to grow rice, using slaves imported from Nigeria Delta area, & latterly mined phosphate. The house was quite spectacular in it's day & owned by the same family for 7 generations until it was bequeathed to the Historical Society in 1960's. Apart from some necessary repairs it is still in it's original condition with no power or inside plumbing, all very interesting. We also made good use of the rental car to do some provisioning which ended up taking 3 days.
Our last US port of call was Jacksonville, Florida, where we found a free dock in downtown Jacksonville. We had a few people to see whilst in Jacksonville & arranged to meet up with Pete's old school mate Paul & his American wife, Cathy, & visited their lovely home in Jacksonville. In the meantime some Kiwi's, Greg & Bev, who we met briefly in Annapolis, pulled up behind us in their yacht, Liberty VI. It turns out Greg used to sail with Paul's father (such a small world), so we arranged for them to meet up with Paul & Cathy too. Our next rendezvous was with Mandy (Pete's daughter) who was in going to be in Tampa for the day while her cruise ship was in port. We hired a car & drove down to Tampa for the day. It was great to see Mandy & see the ship where she has been living & working for the past 4 months. Our friends, Don & Margaret (ex neighbours from Deltaville boat yard), were also in Jacksonville baby sitting their grandchildren. We had a lovely Cuban style dinner with them & left with a doggie bag that fed us for the following 2 days. We did our final provisioning which will hopefully see us through the next 4 months as food is very expensive down where we're heading. Poor Sali used to be 25 tons, but she's closer to 30 tons now & sitting a lot lower in the water!!!!
Our departure on 14th December started out a chilly -2deg C. We were wrapped up in layers, including wet weather gear, hats & gloves etc. We had a good sail for the first 4 hours down the coast, but from then on it was all motor sailing. We got down as far as Cape Canaveral before heading across the Gulf Stream. Although the wind was light it still put up a good sea which meant a rolly ride for the 10 hours it took to cross the Gulf Stream. No sooner had we crossed when the water pump packed up on the main engine. In the meantime the wind had died right down so we spent over 2 hours drifting around while Pete installed the replacement pump, luckily it didn't happen while we were in th Gulf Stream......
We caught a nice Mahi Mahi before arriving in the Abaco Cays on 16th December. Although the Bahama archipelago is only 50 miles from Florida we are now enjoying temperatures of over 20 degs C, along with beautiful aqua coloured waters & white sandy beaches. We are anchored at Marsh Harbour & bouncing around in the waves brought on by a front that's currently passing. Pete has now remedied the anchor, so hopefully we won't drag again. We're also busy catching up on chores & the never ending maintenance before Steve & Morgan (Pete's son & his girlfriend) arrive on Christmas Eve for 2 weeks of diving & crayfish - yahoo!!!!
We some good fast sails down the coast from Chesapeake to Jacksonville, Florida & even had the spinnaker up going past the notorious Cape Hateras, however we did have a hard slog into Beaufort, North Carolina, the last 20nmls from Cape Lookout took 6 hours. We spent Thanks Giving (25th November) in Beaufort & had a wonderful traditional turkey dinner on board Valkyrie (an American yacht) with Ryan, Kari, Sean & Hayley, along with their other guests Gerry & Karen. Beaufort is a small quaint touristy town with a lovely quiet anchorage. Our Austrian friends Ian & Lee-Anne arrived on their catamaran, Windwalker, while we were there. They had come down the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW), a series of connected waterways that run down the east coast from Chesapeake to Florida. A lot of boats use this waterway so they don't have to go off shore down the Atlantic coast & therefore safer. However the ICW passage is a lot slower as you can't sail & you can only travel during daylight hours as there is a big risk of running aground even during the daytime. The ICW was not an option for us as there are a number of bridges to pass under & our mast is too tall for some of them. Ian & Lee-Anne accompanied us on the next leg down the coast to Charleston, South Carolina. Our anchorage here proved to be one of the worst we've experienced.There was a strong current running up to 6knots at times & we couldn't go ashore here for the first 3 days as the wind was howling through the anchorage. When the wind was against the tide the boast were sailing around in all different directions doing 360's & several boats dragged anchor - including Saliander. This is the 3rd time we have dragged anchor this year& we finally realised that we had an issue with the anchor from when we had it galvanised in August, they replaced the lead weight with zinc, which we've now realised is 40% less weight..... A lot of people told us how nice Charleston is & we weren't disappointed. The big old houses in the Old Town & French Quarter have been beautifully preserved & the horse & carts that carry the tourists around the streets complete the picture. We hired a car with Ian & Lee-Anne to visit the Drayton Hall Plantation where they used to grow rice, using slaves imported from Nigeria Delta area, & latterly mined phosphate. The house was quite spectacular in it's day & owned by the same family for 7 generations until it was bequeathed to the Historical Society in 1960's. Apart from some necessary repairs it is still in it's original condition with no power or inside plumbing, all very interesting. We also made good use of the rental car to do some provisioning which ended up taking 3 days.
Our last US port of call was Jacksonville, Florida, where we found a free dock in downtown Jacksonville. We had a few people to see whilst in Jacksonville & arranged to meet up with Pete's old school mate Paul & his American wife, Cathy, & visited their lovely home in Jacksonville. In the meantime some Kiwi's, Greg & Bev, who we met briefly in Annapolis, pulled up behind us in their yacht, Liberty VI. It turns out Greg used to sail with Paul's father (such a small world), so we arranged for them to meet up with Paul & Cathy too. Our next rendezvous was with Mandy (Pete's daughter) who was in going to be in Tampa for the day while her cruise ship was in port. We hired a car & drove down to Tampa for the day. It was great to see Mandy & see the ship where she has been living & working for the past 4 months. Our friends, Don & Margaret (ex neighbours from Deltaville boat yard), were also in Jacksonville baby sitting their grandchildren. We had a lovely Cuban style dinner with them & left with a doggie bag that fed us for the following 2 days. We did our final provisioning which will hopefully see us through the next 4 months as food is very expensive down where we're heading. Poor Sali used to be 25 tons, but she's closer to 30 tons now & sitting a lot lower in the water!!!!
Our departure on 14th December started out a chilly -2deg C. We were wrapped up in layers, including wet weather gear, hats & gloves etc. We had a good sail for the first 4 hours down the coast, but from then on it was all motor sailing. We got down as far as Cape Canaveral before heading across the Gulf Stream. Although the wind was light it still put up a good sea which meant a rolly ride for the 10 hours it took to cross the Gulf Stream. No sooner had we crossed when the water pump packed up on the main engine. In the meantime the wind had died right down so we spent over 2 hours drifting around while Pete installed the replacement pump, luckily it didn't happen while we were in th Gulf Stream......
We caught a nice Mahi Mahi before arriving in the Abaco Cays on 16th December. Although the Bahama archipelago is only 50 miles from Florida we are now enjoying temperatures of over 20 degs C, along with beautiful aqua coloured waters & white sandy beaches. We are anchored at Marsh Harbour & bouncing around in the waves brought on by a front that's currently passing. Pete has now remedied the anchor, so hopefully we won't drag again. We're also busy catching up on chores & the never ending maintenance before Steve & Morgan (Pete's son & his girlfriend) arrive on Christmas Eve for 2 weeks of diving & crayfish - yahoo!!!!
