Landfall at Tanya’s in North Carolina!

It is hard to believe it is May 19^th and we are in North Carolina already, at our friend Tanya’s beautiful ICW “B&B” in Wilmington, no less!!  Sorry we haven’t made any posts to the blog since our departure May 1^st…  We’ve had great weather, albeit very hot in Florida, and so after the first few, short and slow days, we’ve been moving right along.  We know, be careful what you wish for and we had wished for warmth in Florida…  We got it with a vengeance, often 90+ degrees up on the fly bridge…  The heat, our somewhat rusty skills, even less in shipshape bodies, being a year older AND fully retired without a pressing agenda all combined to encourage us to take it slow and easy for the first

Bridge of Lions, St. Augustine, FL

week or so.  We traveled a familiar course: from Eau Gallie to Titusville to New Smyrna Beach to Palm Coast to Jacksonville Beach and then to Fernandina Beach before our first down day.  With the exception of Jacksonville Beach, we stayed in marinas we had visited before and enjoyed being in familiar places.  At Fernandina Beach we were fortunate to spend a couple of days with our friends Jan and Spence, who are great people and generous and gracious hosts.  In addition to terrific company and yummy food, we had luxurious accommodations, including reclining chairs and hot showers, and access the island convertible!!!  It was hard to leave….

 The heat broke as we left Florida but the sun remained so we had mostly smooth sailing through the rural wilds of Georgia and South Carolina.  In this, our third time through these areas, we find we don’t take as many pictures, but we enjoy the scenery and the ride as much if not more than on earlier trips.  The sense of familiarity helps put one’s mind at ease, especially in the early going as we worked to remember boating routines and revitalize a myriad of skills, to say nothing of rebuilding muscles and stamina!  After Golden Isles on St. Simon Island, we tried Kilkenny, a different marina in southern Georgia.  It has quite a reputation; cruisers seem to love or hate it, somewhat like McClellanville, SC we visited with Tanya last fall.  The weather was great so we had no worries about the rustic and somewhat rickety docks, and we found Kilkenny quite charming.  At Savannah we returned to delightful Isle of Hope and then in southern South Carolina, we continued through Charleston harbor to stay at Isle of Palm, a very busy, resort marina close enough that we could walk to the Atlantic Ocean beach-  we didn’t, but it was nice to know we could!  (Pix from FL to NC)

Charleston Light house

 Though the Flickr picture sets won’t be as expansive, we are experimenting with sound and video as another way to share the adventure.  We got the idea from the blog of friends Jim and Paula on Sea Eagle and we’ve posted three already:  SC: Waccamaw River,    SC Salt Marshes   and  NC: Last Pontoon Bridge  (double click on any of the three hotlinks).  We will also be adding to “specialty” picture sets on Flickr, such as “Unusual Sights on the Waterway” and “Strange and/or Sad Ships.”  By adding both the videos and specialty picture sets to the “regular travel log” pix, we hope to share new dimensions of this great adventure!

Underway Again!!

It is May 1^st and we underway!!  We are in Titusville (yes, yet again!) after a good, though hot and long day on the water.  We had hoped to get to New Smyrna today, but the heat and what turned into an almost 2-hour detour to get fuel at Harbor Town Marina on the Cape Canaveral Canal, encouraged us to stop at Titusville.

We checked out of our apartment the day after Sue & Susan departed, and spent the next few days between Sojourner who was at Eau Gallie Boat Works and the Orlando apartment of our dear and generous friends, Shirley and Wayne.  While in town, Carolyn finished up the design of her two final examinations and because she has decided NOT to return next spring, tied up other remaining details at Florida A&M.  Meanwhile, Susan did the non academic equivalent:  dropping off donations for Goodwill, mailing books and clothing back to Lexington, finalizing arrangements to sell the car and the like.  At the boat works, a few interior details remained, and then there was Sojourner’s external preparation for the trip.  In addition to a new, fly bridge remote for the VHF radio, updated software programming for the chart plotter/radar/sonar, 4 new fenders and a complete set of new fender covers, she got her bright work, i.e., external teak trim, done (a complete sand down and 10 coats varnish), her bottom cleaned, and her hull and superstructure cleaned and waxed!  She’s the Belle of the waterway… at least for a little while, until the tannin in the water gives her another ICW moustache anyhow!

The ultimate goal this summer, at least for the moment, is to finish the Loop and spend next winter in the Keys.  To accomplish that, we will retrace our path of last summer up the Atlantic seaboard, cruise into NYC harbor and out again heading north on the Hudson River, and take the Erie (and Oswego) Canal to Lake Ontario.  From there, we’ll venture into new territory:  cross Lake Ontario into Canada and the Trent Severn canal, perhaps with a side trip up to Montreal, time permitting.  Eventually we’ll cross Georgian Bay into Lake Heron and on to Lake Michigan.  Then down to Chicago and into the inland river and waterway system through Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama back down to Mobile and the Gulf of Mexico.  We will officially complete the Great Loop/Circle Route when we cross our own wake at St. Louis, our starting point for this great adventure!  We hope you all will follow along and let us hear from you along the way, ok?!