2023-11-19 Further south - visiting family

We left Fernandina in a cloudy windy cool morning, and motored down to an anchorage close to the Marina we were going to on Monday.

Part of Fernandina waterfront is very industrial looking

Fernandina waterfront. Military ship with patrol boat out in front, making sure we don't get too close.

We anchored Sunday night, just off the ICW, and early Monday headed to the marina.  Needed to leave early, as did not want current against us, and worried about some bridges at high tide, and water is higher than normal, which makes bridge clearance tight sometimes.
We timed our trip with the currents well, and saw good speed on the trip.

Doing 9.7 knots with one engine motoring - that is 4 knots of current in our favor

Monday we spent a wonderful day with Deans cousin Linda  and her husband Phil.  We look forward to seeing them every year on our journey south, and had a good visit.  Linda also chauffeured us around town getting some thread for our salon cushion project, and a stop at Costco.   They were also kind enough to let us ship numerous packages to their house before our arrival - which is always great and much appreciated.   Linda  is a marvelous cook, so we both gained a few pounds during the visit 😁

Our stack of packages

Tuesday morning, we were up early, ran across the street from the Marina got some groceries, and then a quick two loads of laundry, at the very cheap marina laundry.  Only $1 per wash and $1 per dry, in excellent clean machines.  

We headed south, next stop would be St. Augustine, where we anchored for a night, then up early and motoring south again to Daytona Beach.   Cloudy days with some rain, but at least the lows are above 60 degrees, and the highs in the 70's.

Quite the varied scenery between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach

Quite a few large homes

After a while, they seem normal size, there are so many of them

Also some nice undeveloped land

And of the other side of the ICW from the undeveloped is packed with homes

Water level is high.  Some of the homes look close to flooding

Think this place may have water on the floor

As we motor along, you see many things.  We always see some sunken boats - which is sad.  This trip we also saw numerous boats aground.  We will stop and help if we can, but most times, you simply have to wait for high tide.    Always glad it isn't us that has gone aground.   Sometimes we wonder how it happend, like the below photo.   Clearly on the wrong side of the sign.  Maybe it was intentional?

Aground, but was off soon after we passed, as it was near high tide.

Looks like wind damaged his sign, thank goodness the fish survived

Homes getting bigger the further south we went

The ICW can be quite scenic, but you do have to deal with other boaters, most very courteous and will slow down when they pass you to not create a large wake.   Some don't.

This guy did not slow at all passing us.  Large wake

The trip takes us under several bridges.  We are lucky, we can clear 62'.  Many boats can not, and end up spending time just waiting for the water to go down so they can proceed.

This was the least clearance we saw on our trip.

We spent two days anchored at Daytona Beach.  Had over an inch of rain so just hung out inside, read books, played on computer and Kris made cookies.  

Friday we upped anchor and headed south along with 9 other boats who were waiting out weather in Daytona Beach.   Another cloudy day, with a few sun breaks.

Could see the Starlink launch ready on the launchpad at Canaveral.

Anchored at Cocoa, and finally off the boat for a walk in town.  No rain, and some sun.

Nice mural on the wall.   Wheres Dean?

Pretty open square in Cocoa

We had a nice walk, got some ice cream and watched people for a while before heading back to the boat.  Back at the boat, watched a guy come out and anchor a small mono hull.  He drug his anchor back at least 200' before he decided he was good, and then got in his dinghy and left.    Another cruiser came by and told us that that the same boat had drug into him the other day and warned us to be wary.  Since the dragging boat was behind us we did not worry too much.  Later in the day more boats came into the anchorage, and then the winds built so we jumped in our dink to warn the boats behind about the dragger.  They both moved, and sure enough, the little boat kept dragging, and would had hit them both given the chance.  

We will stay another day here, and then move further south.

2023-11-12 Offshore hop - Fernandina Beach - boat projects

We did make an offshore overnight hop from Charleston to Fernandina Beach.  The weather forecast called for stronger winds, so we left with a reef in our main, but the winds were lighter, so took it out, an hour later had to start the motor, and two hours later where back with a reefed main, and sailing nicely for the remaining 20 hours of the trip.  Averaged 6.7 knots - so were quite happy to have an uneventful nice offshore passage.   Two other sailboats, a couple of 55' monohulls were within 5 miles of us for the entire trip, and the only other boats were the cluster of cargo ships outside of Savannah Georgia - waiting to load or unload.

Lots of stationary cargo ships on AIS that we sailed through.

What the cargo ships look like at night.

We sailed to Fernandina beach - and finally warmth.  Still not hot during the day - but at least we don't need our electric heater all day - just a bit in the morning to take the chill off until the sun comes out.

We had a week to kill before heading further south, as we arranged to meet up with Deans cousin and husband the following Monday - so time to do some projects, and some relaxation as well.

First order was to get off the boat, and see the town, so a nice walk with lunch out was in order.

We did go to town, and it is a cute town.  Had a nice lunch out, and wandered the streets.

Lots of pirates in Fernandina Beach

Dean and this fellow had a nice conversation

Very touristy stores in downtown Fernandina

And more pirates

Nice lunch out at local burger joint

You know it is a touristy place when you see something like this drive by, with a phone number to call for tours

Beautiful old Live Oak trees

Stopped at an old hardware store

The inside of the hardware store was a bit disappointing in how messy it was

Residential street in Fernandina, nice area to walk

Saw lots of flowers - enjoy the photos family who are already having snow

Winter is not cold and dark in Florida

You would think it is summer time.

Enjoyed all the birdhouses in the tree

A few days of warm temperatures and virtually no wind made it excellent for Dean to clean the hulls from the "moustache" of brown the boat gets while traversing the ICW from the tannins in the water.   Kris worked on the engine and finished sewing the shoe and life jacket bags for the dinghy.  

Our port engine had an issue with hard starting and lots of white smoke - so Kris checked the glow plugs and found them all bad.  We were able to find two out of three needed in town, so picked those up and Kris worked on installing.  Since she had to shut fuel off, she decided to check the injectors and give them a brief clean as well.   An all day project

Engine torn apart a bit, with tips of gloves cut and covering injector ports

We took a break after a couple days of work, and headed to town again.  This time a 5 mile walk into the grocery store and back.  Stopped and got Dean a haircut as well.

Time for a trim.  His next cut will be on the boat with Kris wielding the scissors.

On our way back we saw a lot of people working to set up some kind of partitions in a parking lot area so we stopped to chat.  Found out the largest tournament in the US for Petanque was happening this coming weekend.  So Friday we headed in to watch Petanque, and of course stop for some ice cream as well.

Petanque is like Bocce Ball

Dean got the hulls clean, and Kris got the engine work and sewing done before the weather turned bad.  

Made some new friends, as another Manta owner asked to visit to talk electrical upgrades.  They were in the area, so drove up, and Dean picked them up from the dinghy dock and brought them to the boat.   Jandals - a Manta 42 owned by Dave and Carey, along with good friend and fellow sailor Toby came out to the boat.  Unfortunately the wind had picked up and the day was cloudy, and they all arrived wet and salty from the ride.  Like true sailors, they were undaunted, and even kept the wonderful delicious pastries they had picked up dry, which we all enjoyed with a cup of tea (except Dean - Mt. Dew was his drink of choice).   Had a wonderful visit - but forgot to take any photos.

Windy cloudy day for Jandals visit.   Sorry about the wet dink ride 

We will head further south today, and have a Marina booked for Monday for visiting with Deans cousin.

2023-11-04 Heading south - too cold

We hung out at Carolina Beach for a day.  Sold the old outboard - nice to have that done.   To celebrate we had a good lunch out at Flamin Amy's but disappointed, as the chips were not as good as remembered.  Artwork and food still good.

Like the artwork at Flamin Amy's

Food still yummy

We got groceries, and got a couple parts at the hardware store.  There are lots of murals around town which are fun to see.

Nice mural

The Carolina Shag is partner dance done to beach music.  Still competitions today for dancing it.

Next day, only moving a few miles, trying to time our ICW journey to favorable currents, so had time for lunch out again at one of our well know eateries.   This was the most decorated McD we have been in.

Quite the Halloween decor in the McDonalds.

Carolina beach is good for watching birds.  Love the pelicans

Carolina beach is where we start to see Pelicans more often

No zoom used on this photo - was not too scared of us at all.

The weather forecast was indicating a low of only 52, then it changed and the low was going to be 34.   Kris decided that it was simply too cold, and quickly booked two nights at the dock in Georgetown.  So we headed south.

Passed the "normal" homes along the ICW

One of the smaller homes

Cloudy dreary day motoring - but he heat is on inside.

Got a kick out of this very large fancy home, yet has bill board advertisements on the dock railing- think they need the business to pay for the house?

Halloween was spent anchored out near Enterprise off the ICW- but we celebrated by eating too much candy

Our Halloween decoration and bag of candy (empty- ate it all)

Pretty morning at the anchorage

We made it to Georgetown to our dock and turned on the heat.  Spent two nights warm, while outside it did get down to around 35 degrees at night.   Kris sewed the dinghy shoe bags, Dean did a load of laundry, but as we are cheap, and the weather was warming to above 45 at night we decided to head south.   It was cold

 

Kris at watch, bundled up against the cold.

Anchored just shy of Charleston on Friday night - pizza night.  Unfortunately our propane sniffer is acting up, and seems everytime we use the oven - the alarm goes off, even though there is not a propane leak.  Only way to shut the alarm off is to shut off power to the sniffer - which also shuts off power to the stove.    Needed to cook the pizza, so when the alarm when off, we decided to continue to let it go - constant beep beep beep beep, two beeps every second for 15 minutes while the pizza is cooking. We went outside and waited it out.

Kris with her hearing protectors on outside in the cold waiting for the pizza to cook.

It was worth it, as anyone who has eaten Dean's pizza knows.

Decision time now - do we continue motoring down the ICW - or do we make one overnight jump offshore.  Winds look good - but seas look rough.  Plan is to head offshore, which we will do today, but if we get offshore and hate it, we might turn right around and come back in.