We have been waiting on a good weather window to make an offshore jump of 50 miles further south. Winds have been strong out of the East to Southeast - so not good. Waves have been spectacular though, crashing on the eastern beaches.
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| Lynyard Cay east side in strong East winds and swell |
We moved south, stopped at Powell Cay, and had a nice time. Walked to beach on east side. Very pretty beach.
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| East side of beach. Not much trash here |
Still at Allans / Pensacola Cay. Nice weather. Still surrounded by sharks. Have been working on identification, and 95% sure they are bull sharks. Not ones to go swimming with. Sharks in the Bahamas are not uncommon, but usually you are out of the water by 4:00 each day, as usually the sharks come around during twilight hours. You can generally plan on mid day being shark free. Unfortunately, we think that people have been feeding the sharks, or cleaning their fish catch from the boats and these have become used to boats having food. They circle the boat all day long. We have had from two to five swimming circles around us since we have arrived, with no visible break.
After our covid test came back negative, we left North Palm Beach, and had a relatively smooth motor across the gulf stream to arrive in the Bahamas at West End on Grand Bahama. Left at 5:30 at night, just as dark was settling in, and arrive at 6:00 next morning after motoring on one engine most the night. Got in a little too early, so had to slow down for about a 1/2 hour at the end and wait for daylight to enter the narrow channel.
Check in went well, and we left by 9:30 a.m. to head to Great Sale Cay. Nice to be back in the blue water.
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| Sailing from West End to Great Sale Cay |
We left Vero Beach, and headed further south on the ICW down to North Palm Beach, where we could wait on a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas, and also get our pre departure Covid tests, required for entry. Pretty normal ICW motor trip - although we did get a little time motor-sailing.
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| Osprey with fish |
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| Motor-sailing with jib |
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| Swiss chalet style seems out of place in Florida |
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| One of the many bridges that we had to have open for us |
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| Some fancier homes the further south we go |
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| Probably only a 3 bed 2 bath :) |
Vero Beach, FL, is often referred to as Velcro Beach for us cruisers, and for good reason. Lots of stores, that are convenient to get to with a free bus, protected spot - reasonable moorings.
We only stopped for 6 nights, but had a lot of fun.
We got to spend some time with our friends on Sojourn. We had a couple of days of shopping, and one memorable lunch where we bought Burger King Impossible Burgers, which we took across the street to McDonalds, and ate them with McDonalds fries and drinks. Best of both worlds.
After a rough night of choppy seas anchored in Titusville, we decided we could do better, so headed south, after picking up packages from an Amazon hub in Titusville.
We wanted to stop in Cocoa, as there is a large interesting hardware store there, and a free dock, but the winds decided otherwise for us, so instead a new anchorage for us south of the Eau Gallie bridge near the town of Indian Harbor Beach, FL. It ended up being a good stop, with a nice dinghy dock, and easy walk to the important stuff of a WalMart, McDonalds and Publix grocery store.
Well, we survived the NorEaster, and other than having to re-anchor in a downpour once, we did just fine.
We had a good sail down the coast. Wind mostly from directly aft, which is a great ride for a catamaran. Winds were 15 knots to start - so wing on wing, and then when then winds lightened, we flew our spinnaker most the night. Early morning had a shackle failure, so back on wing on wing, so a little slower, but it all worked out well.
Had some dolphins visit on the trip, which is always great.
We pulled into Fernandina Beach for a day and a half, and then headed south to the St. Augustine area find a protected anchorage for the next few days.
It looks like the weather report for St. Augustine FL is going to be wet and windy for the next couple of days. The area has a small craft advisory and flooding warnings out. Hard to read, but about 5" of rain in the next 24 hours, and winds up to 25 knots, with locally higher gusts expected. YUCK.
We saw the forecast and yesterday moved to an anchorage (red spot) we hoped would be better than the one we had at Fernandina Beach. There are 5 other boats in this area thinking the same thing, will let you know on Sunday if we made a good decision or not :) (we are at the red dot)
Break out the movies and inside project list.
We spent 3.5 days in Georgetown, SC. It has a very protected anchorage, that sometimes is a bit smelly from the paper pulp mill. Lucky for us, only smelly on the morning we left, as the winds shifted from the south to the west.
You check out the anchorage views here: Georgetown, SC Anchorage (https://youtu.be/gaIrFm_dYN4)
We walked to town, got groceries, visited the hardware store. Ate at McDonalds (3 mile round trip). Saturday we walked to WalMart (2 miles each way), got more groceries, stopped at Food Lion and Tractor Supply as well.
Georgetown was ready for Halloween with a Scarecrow garden in a waterfront park.
Georgetown has some nice areas with mature tree lined streets.
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| Super glue and a little clamping action |
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| Fixed (temp) part back on engine |
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| About 200 miles to sail to get warm. |
Don't know how long he will stick around.
We took the bus to the big city of Wilmington, NC. Bus picked up really close to dinghy dock. Unfortunately, had to catch the 8:00 bus, so we were on a timetable, and the rain hit hard right about when we needed to get into the dinghy. Arrived at dinghy dock soaking wet. Oh Well. Made it to town OK, bus ride was good. Went to a Lowes, JoAnn fabrics, and Bed Bath and Beyond. We were going to grab lunch at a Wendy's and then catch the bus back, but Wendy's was short staffed, and the dining room was not open. Being the cheap people we are, we did not want to pay for any of the other close restaurants - but we were in luck. A Sam's club was nearby.
We have been anchored in Carolina Beach since we arrived Wednesday night. This is a good anchorage with close access to groceries, hardware stores, and cheap eats (McDonalds). We headed into town, to pick up some groceries. Only .6 miles each way - Not bad.
We had a great time visiting with Ed and Cathy of "What If". As many of you know, we previously owned "What If". Ed and Cathy are taking good care of her, and are nice people that we are happy to call friends. We also enjoyed our time with Duane and Karen of "Sojourn", and hope to see more of them further south.
Many warm blooded mammals stay warm during the winter months by growing thicker fur, or hibernating - and although we like to sleep, and some of us are hairier than others, we have chosen to migrate south where the weather is warmer. When the morning temperatures are in the lower 50s the wanting to get out of a warm bed into a cold boat becomes difficult for the crew of Charm. So we are heading south to warmer mornings.
We met up with these folks in June when we were headed north. They have a youtube video of their adventures and this one included us.
They are a nice couple doing the Great Loop.
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We stopped in Elizabeth City NC at the Mid-Atlantic Christian College free dock. They have really big people here. |
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| View out back door |
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| Matthews, VA |
We left Annapolis and headed north - only to be closer to Baltimore, as Kris was flying back to attend the wedding of our niece.
Kris had to leave the boat at 8:00 a.m., to catch and Uber ride to the airport. Wouldn't you know it, the hardest rain we have seen since the last tropical storm hit arrived right as we needed to get the dinghy in the water and head in. Kris was soaked, and left a puddle in the poor Uber drivers car, but made it safely to Boise, then enjoyed a 8 hour drive with Derek (our son) to Bozeman, Montana for the wedding.
We left Cheasapeake City, and headed to the Sassafras River. Anchored in Back Creek, near the Harmon House Plantation.
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| Motoring to Sassafras River |
We had a great sail from Coney Island, NY down to Cape May New Jersey, - only issue was we were too fast. We left at 2:00 in the afternoon, and sailed the entire way down with a very smooth ride, with only about 2' seas. Winds 14 to 18 knots, so full main and jib the entire way.
Not much of a moon, but lots of stars out. Got into Cape May at 5:30 a.m. in the morning, as we averaged 7.5 knots which was faster than we had planned on. Dropped the anchor, around 6:30 a.m.
Notice SOG at 10.3 knots surfing down wave. WOO HOO
Being this far north we planned on having less impacts from hurricanes, you know they are suppose to stay down in Florida. Anyways Henri came through and we saw little wind and rain where we were at. Ida is now coming through so we moved to a protected spot for wind, Coney Island Creek. We knew the rain was going to be a lot, 3 to 5 inches, and we got that. We received 3 weather warnings on our phone for flooding issues. We were low on boat water but filled our 100 gallon tank in about 2 hours with rain water using our rain catcher.
We always try to time our boat moves for favorable winds and seas. Lets face it, we have the time - so no need to move the boat when it is not a good time. A common sailor saying is: The most dangerous item on a boat is a schedule.
As we were heading southwest, with following seas and wind, having a pleasant sail, we saw this guy northeast. You can get some decent seas in Long Island Sound, especially when heading against them. This catamaran we passed must have been on a schedule.
We got our first Covid shot at a CVS in Newport RI. and after waiting the 4 weeks it was time to get the 2nd shot. Since we had gone with Moderna on the first shot we needed to find a spot where they offered the 2nd. Port Washington Rite Aide was the spot so we planned the walk up to the store and then planned on the second day being a "recovery" day. The first shot didn't have a huge impact other than Kris not being able to move her arm for two to three days but we had heard the second shot had more issues.
So today we have laid around the boat with all the side affects that were predicted, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fevers, and nausea. Hopefully tomorrow gets us back to normal because these side effects suck.
Common Side Effects
Tropical Storm Henri was a no issue for us. We moved anchorages to get maximum protection for the strongest winds, but knew we would be exposed to waves and swell from 15 knots winds for a night. We endured a bouncy night, and the next morning, when the winds were going to be bad - well it did not happen. Henri moved the opposite direction of projected, so we did not have any issues. Just a lot of rain.
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| Henri's Projected path. |
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| No Sling Seat |
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| New Seat Installed |
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| Super Duper |
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| Its not a large or fancy place |
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| 25' increments in yellow, 50' in orange, and 100' in white |
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| Lucky we had some bread on board. |
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| We are where the orange "g" is. |
