Bahamas Bound

2006 - 2007

From Buddy's perspective we're in the midst of the flock. We are seeing the same boats on a regular basis whether anchored out or traveling down the ICW.

You can follow the current leg of our journey on this page as you did with the Loop Trip. We plan to post and update at least weekly... if the god of internet communications sees fit to permit regular connections. Every couple of weeks we'll move the older portions of the log to secondary pages, keeping this page somewhat shorter.

Updated on 12/04/2006

11/19/06 - A cold front snuck in last night... we woke up to a low lying dense fog. I mounted our bell (first time) and turned on the radar as I could hear  the whining outboards of small fishing boats as they whizzed by. I saw a dark shape and rang the bell in time for a planning scow to swerve and scream by. We weighed anchor at 8:30 and entered the Estherville channel southbound. The sun was rising and the fog burning off... time to get moving! We ran to Charlestown, SC where we hoped to refuel. The marina was too busy to accommodate us that evening so we anchored across the river for the night. Another 60 mile day. 11/20/06 - Monday morning, bright and sunny. We got a late start as we had to move to the Mega Dock for fuel, water and a pump-out. By 9am we were truckin' south. NOAA weather is warning of a "weather event", a low intensifying just off Beaufort, SC (our destination for the day) with sustained winds in the high 20's to low 30's and gust to 45. Their advice - find a harbor. Our intent, put 65 miles under the keel and anchor in Beaufort (which we did by dusk). We arrived at the bridge about 4:15pm to learn it doesn't open for recreational traffic between 4 and 6pm. Fortunately a tow arrived about 5:30 and the bridge had to open, allowing us to pass through to the anchorage. 11/21/06 - Today dawned windy and wet. The weather forecast was right on! We'll take a down day or two until this "weather event" plays itself out. I hope to get the dinghy hoist wired - a bit of a project as I have to disassemble the aft berth to run the wiring under it. Looks like I need to get a switch to permit the hoist to be disconnected (locked) from inside the boat. Well, at least the wiring is all in place now. Ruth's on a cleaning binge... have to admit it looks a lot better. Outside it blowing rain and the temperature is in the high 30's - Ecky and Chuck can equate with that. Good day for chili - Buddy's favorite. 11/22/06 - Greeted by a sullen sky. Still windy and wet. One good point about the wind is that our batteries were charged enough for making coffee without turning on the diesel though we have to use it for charging later today. Not much solar power being generated. Hung around Beaufort until 10am when we decided the weather we had was the weather we were getting... so I put on rain gear and headed south in 10 knot winds, mist and low 40's. Ran about 35 miles, anchoring just before the Savannah River about 3pm. This is a stretch of the waterway we haven't run before as we sailed offshore northbound on the loop due to a bridge being closed. 11/23/06 - Thanksgiving dawned damp and grey. The mist cleared about 10am and we headed south across the Savannah River - dodging a China Lines container ship that was headed out to sea. The day cleared as we motored in what was still new territory to us. By late afternoon we crossed St Catherine's Sound and were back in familiar waters. We anchored that night in Cattle Pen Creek, a small tidal river off Johnson Creek, another small tidal river off the sound. It was a beautiful evening - so still the water was a mirror. A molten gold sun sank over the marshes as we listened to the calls of the shore birds punctuated by the haunting hoots of a pair of owls. Our Thanksgiving meal of marinated grilled chicken, sweet potato pie, creamed corn and hot apple crisp tasted better to us than anything we could have imagined from a restaurant. Life doesn't get any better than an evening like this in the company of your closest friend and lover. As the pink and purple edges of the sky gave way to black we gave silent thanks for the gift of being able to make this trip together. 11/24/06 - A beautiful day! I hauled anchor at 7, leaving a 28' sailboat as sole occupant of our little anchorage. About 8am I passed through a group of 7 boats motor sailing south across Sapelo Sound. They were running about 6 knots and we were running 8 (speed demons). White egrets and dolphins were the primary wildlife sightings of the day (we don't count cormorants as they outnumber any species at least 10:1). It sure is weird running along the grassy channels... being able to see boat miles ahead and behind as the weave through the marshlands. Buddy took a shower in the cockpit as we motor sailed along the ICW through Brunswick GA and south. We stopped at Jekyll Island for fuel, where Buddy made a friend... showing off and whistling. Then we pushed south another 10 miles to Little Creek (making it a 70 mile day) where we anchored for the night - the whole place to ourselves. Another quiet evening with a  fiery sundown over the coastal plains. 11/25/06 - Purple turned to red as the sun rose Saturday. Not a cloud in the sky. I started down the ICW toward St Mary's river, quickly overtaking a smaller sailboat that was stopped. Aground? I eased up to see that they were surrounded by dozens of dolphins... more than we'd seen in one place before. We drifted through pod after pod of dolphins, loosing count. A little later we passed a navy degaussing station. As I understand it they remove or pacify a magnetic charge that builds up on vessels. As we proceeded toward St Mary's we heard the Coast Guard telling vessels to turn to new headings to avoid pointing toward a vessel under escort. A USCG chopper circled us... ahead I could see a cluster of vessels escorting a large black whale toward us. Two smaller USCG ribs with deck mounted machine guns were darting about herding vessels well away from the fleet. I pulled out of the ICW and anchored in a cove - bow toward shore. Ruth grabbed the camera and shot the pictures (immediate left) as the "whale" powered by us with her escort. Not your average day in paradise. We continued south after that whale of a welcome to Florida. After a false turn up the St Mary's River we got our act together and passed through Fernandina Beach - where we picked up brother-in-law Dave M. joining us for a week on the loop return 18 months ago. A few hours later we passed Jacksonville and Palm Valley to anchor for the night in the company a trawler and 14 sailboats. We covered another 70 miles today. Time to fire up the grill and toss on a couple of tenderloins. Oh... for Miles... we came across our first bridge under 64 feet. It read 63.5 at near high tide (4 foot tidal area). So far all the rest have read 64' and above. 11/26/06 - Sunday started overcast with occasional misting. I hoisted anchor at 7am, arriving at St. Augustine by 9:30am. We anchored for a couple of hours, then we took a slip, did some sight seeing, bought a chart chip and parts at West Marine and cleaned the ICW off the boat. A shorts and tee shirt kinda day. Really nice! Got to meet some interesting folk along the dock. We really needed a down day like this. Buddy was in his element... all these people coming to see HIM. 11/27/06 - During the night we had heavy periods of rain... awakening to fog that hid the towers of the Bridge of Lions. We departed the marina about 9:30 in light mist. As we moved south the weather got nice and we started catching up with boats that had left earlier. By 3:30 we were leading a train of 17 sailboats and trawlers through the bridges. The temperature was in the 70's, it was sunny, and Buddy was in the cockpit. Ruth and I take turns navigating and steering. You really have to be aware of where you are as 20-30 feet out of the center of the channel and you are aground. That said, we've found the ICW to be in better shape depth-wise than it was when we closed the loop 18 months ago. It's obvious that a lot of dredging has been done. However, dredging doesn't replace diligent piloting. We saw a catamaran aground in a place the towboats couldn't even figure out how to get to in order to re-float them. Talk about a bad day. At Daytona we passed under another 62.5' bridge on the waterway and found a great anchorage. It was interesting to watch the rest of the flock circling us and dropping their anchors for the night. We can tell we are in Florida, the temperatures, architecture and pleasant evenings at sundown... finally - payback for that nasty run out of the Great Lakes and across NY. 11/28/06 - I got up and had us on the water by 7am. We traveled for a while with Osprey, a couple from PA who had done the ICW last spring and had local knowledge of the Ponce Inlet - an area Bradd and Maeve of Sampatecho had warned us about. Osprey drew 4.5' versus our 5.5' so they lead us through a stretch of 6'-7' water. Piece of cake - no one grounded. Once clear of this area we set the main and fore sails and drove south to Titusville, home of the NASA launch site - Cape Canaveral. Enroute we saw 4 pink flamingos - the first we've seen in the wild! A little later a dolphin played with us - diving through our quarter wave... waiting for us to pass and then diving through it again. He (she?) did this for about 15 minutes before getting bored with us and leaving. We arrived in Titusville at 2pm having covered 50 miles. We elected to stop for the day so Ruth could read while I finished hooking up the dinghy lift. Chuck L. will be glad to know the Zodiac he sold me is now safely hoisted across the transom of Another Adventure... I swear I heard it sigh Lady Lynn as I hoisted it out of the water. 11/29/06 - We passed through the NASA Parkway bridge at 7:30am. The temperature was 72 - not too shabby. We motor-sailed all day at 9 to 9.5 knots over the water, 7-9.5 knots over land depending on tidal flows.  The temperatures rose to the mid 80's. We were headed for Vero Beach. 74 miles later we rafted up to two other vessels that were moored to a plug. Vero Beach is unique in that the plugs are designed to accommodate a raft of 3-4 vessels. For $11/night you raft on the plug they assign you. We are on the starboard side of a Catalina 47 from Canada... a chance to swap tales. The draw 6.5' with and air draft of 65' forcing them to travel offshore most of the time. They've been here 11 days waiting for the coastal waters to calm down so they can proceed south (won't be happening the next 4 days based on NOAA forecasts. We're thinking of taking a down day tomorrow to let me finish the dinghy hoist. 11/30/06 - Used the dinghy hoist and dinghy today - first time on the trip. Still needs a little work but I have to find parts... maybe Saturday. We are finally getting the benefit of the wind and solar generators. Today we did not run the engine at all and are still at the voltage we started the day at. This is after running the inverter for several tasks, cooking and using the dinghy hoist. I think the systems are going to work as planned. Wish I had a little more storage (batteries) as we generate more than we can use at times... hmmmm. Ruth gave the boat interior a good cleaning today - looks great. Temp in the mid 80's, whew, we're not ready for that yet. Buddy was on a rip today, out in the cockpit talking up a streak to the entertainment of the other two boats on our raft. I took the bus and went shopping this afternoon. More accurately I tried to shop but couldn't find most of what I wanted. Maybe I'll have better luck in Boca Raton. We plan to try to make the 97 mile run there tomorrow... hoping to catch up with Sampatecho. 12/1/06 - Another beautiful day - we were up to our ankles in white stuff... sand. The beaches along this part of the ICW look just like s - s - s - sugar. Today we hit the bridges. Slowed us down from our planned 9 miles to 70 miles. 15 knot winds on the nose made an offshore jump an unpleasant option so we stayed in the ICW. Ruth and I had decided to get unlimited towing from BoatUS as too many of the folk we've talked to have needed a tow. While she was on the phone upping our insurance I ran aground at 7 knots 50 feet inside the channel marker at Jupiter Inlet. Startled, Ruth exclaimed "snow!" (or some other appropriate 4 letter word) "We just ran aground!" The lady at BoatUS asked "Are you okay?" Ruth responded yes, it felt like sand and I seemed to be working our way out. BoatUS reminded her the towing policy didn't go into effect until after midnight. I wiggled the boat off the sand and we were on our way. During the afternoon we heard 2 boats warn they'd bump at #2 buoy and another call Towboat US for help. We got as far as Palm Beach. Ruth noted an anchorage below an upcoming bridge. When we saw it we both said "Noooooo!" It was the site where we'd spent the night on our side during the loop trip. We proceeded another 2 miles before picking a spot to anchor in 10' of water - calculating we'd have 6.5' during low tide. 12/2/06 - Up at midnight to check low tide. We had 7 feet of water - no problem. Back to bed to awaken at dawn to another great day. By 7:15 we were motoring south on the ICW. It was a day of bridges. Luckily we pretty much hit them right on their scheduled openings... it doesn't get much better than that. One of the things I'd forgotten about the east coast was the number of French-Canadian boats on the waterway. Listening to the VHF radio during the early morning calls as the boats get ready to take off for the day you'd think you were in France. By 2pm we were in Boca Raton - where we'd planned on catching up with Sampatecho. We heard them calling for a bridge opening further ahead of us but couldn't raise them on the radio. We anchored in Lake Boca surrounded by condos and homes (nice one next to us for only $11.9 million). The water temperature is in the 80's and people were swimming by their boats. Very nice! There's more fabric on a spool of thread than there was in a couple of thongs I studied. We also saw a couple of Loggerhead sea turtles. They proved to be camera shy. Sampatecho rafted to us about 2:30pm. They'd monitored our progress through the bridges and had swung by with friends to welcome us. It was great to see Bradd and Maeve again. They returned later and we had supper together on their boat. They ending up spending the night rafted to us as their throttle linkage failed. 12/3/06 - Sampatecho left about 7:45am to catch a bridge opening. Mauve sitting by the engine compartment actuating the throttle as Bradd communicated to her via their headsets ("Captain to engine room, give me everything she's got Scotty"). They were off to get the throttle cable repaired. I installed a couple of shelves in the master cabin and sanded teak topsides. AA needs some TLC to get her back in top shape. I dove the prop and rudder to check the zincs an make sure we'd done no damage on the trip down. All looks well and the water was great - 80's. Tomorrow we plan to hit the ocean for the passage to Miami. A 50' high bridge prevents our staying in the ICW.

Buddy enjoys a chili treat Charlestown City Mega Dock - the red sailboat is about 100' A trawler/wrecker with fire salvage A shrimp trawler follows us in the grass The "whale" passed our stern... and headed upstream to be degaussed The GPS said the channel was here... Cranes, FL state bird, nest building Palm Beach condo - new since our last trip through Ruth shot this canal side party State of the Intercoastal Waterway We found the water depths close to project depth on most of the trip. Exceptions were below Morehead City, above the Ponce Inlet and most of Florida. The only area where we were concerned as we motored was above Ponce Inlet. There we had a shallower draft boat ahead of us reporting 5' whereas we found 7' a little further over in the channel. We've bumped a couple of times along the edges of the channel. Nothing major. Our only tight spot was at Jupiter inlet by the #2 nun where we grounded in 5' of water but were able to turn and power off the sand. We found deeper water mid-channel. The shoaling at number 2 caught a number of boats that day. Chuck had brought aboard a 50 year old intercoastal waterway guide. It has been fun reading ahead and then traveling through the areas. One note was to avoid the shoaling by the green daymark at the entrance to Vero Beach marina. We found a sport fisherman aground there - some things don't change. Other wilderness areas were found today to be fully developed with rows of condos. $11.9 mil puts you in the one on the left so you can watch us watch you.

Visit earlier portions of the Bahamas Bound trip log...