Miami to Highborne Cay via Nassau

Well we finally said goodbye to Miami and Sobe!! We got a weather window to get out of dodge for December 20Th!! So on Friday the 19Th along with our friends on Reach we moved the boats down to No Name Harbor so we could stage ourselves for an early morning departure to ensure that we could clear Gun Cay and enter the Bahama Banks in daylight. Of course before we left we took one more tour of Sobe and let the Admiral bask in the attention that is afforded her kind along the beach!! Our friends Mark (s/v Reach) and Keith (s/v Kookaburra) of course wanted to get into the spirit of Sobe also they agreed to "pose" with the admiral also.... After our tour of Sobe was done it was time to get the final provisions for our trek over to the Bahamas. One early Christmas (Birthday, Anniversary etc) was to invest in a Honda generator so we could give our diesel a break and charge when the wind was calm. Of course all we did was ensure that the wind wouldn't die!! We organized a Beach party with fellow cruisers so we could all compare notes and get to know one another before heading off to the Bahamas...!! Dave and Mark provided the grills and every one brought a dish to share..I believe a good time was had by all!! On the way down to No Name Harbor the Captain snapped this great picture of a seaplane that was doing tricks. Well 5:00 am came early the next day when we upped our anchor to head out of No Name and make our way towards the Gulf Stream. The forecast was for light easterlies, 5-10 knots, because normally you would rather have a West or SW wind. We ended up motor sailing the entire trip. Which meant that our crossing was very mellow and the seas in the Gulf stream were 2' or less. We did manage to catch a small Black fin tuna (sorry no pictures) and it made a very tasty dinner. We spotted the lighthouse off Gun Cay at around 3:30 pm and we rounded and dropped anchor for a much needed swim, along with our friends Mark and Michele on Reach. After cooling off and snapping a couple cool pictures it was time to start moving again and we crossed the Bahama Banks during the night and hit the North West Passage light at around 2:00 am. We entered the tongue of the ocean and headed for Nassau. We rounded the lighthouse off Nassau at around 11:oo am.

You do get to see some pretty awesome boats in this harbor like this "little" private yacht that not only carries it's own sailboat but power boat also!!

Lets just say that being early to arrive in Nassau is not always a blessing...we tried to go to the Customs dock to check in but were told that we needed to go to a marina to check in. Of course we had made no plans to do so as we were planning to anchor so we circled around until we found a fuel dock that was out of fuel and awaited Customs and Immigration. They finally showed up at 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm respectively. We finally got anchored at 7:30 that night. We found out that later in the day they were allowing boats to check in at the Customs dock as the marinas were all full. Apparently with our weather window there were around 80 plus boats that took advantage of the same window (along with upteen Cruise Ships) and both Customs and Immigration were a bit overwhelmed. Oh well what can you do we are visitors in their country and the good thing was we were checked in and free to move on!! Nassau harbor is good for one thing....to stock up on rum!! We were looking forward to going in with Reach and possibly splitting a case along with a few other items. As we were anchoring in the dark we just found a spot away from everyone figuring we would re anchor in the am to a better spot. We woke up early to catch the forecast and listened as it sounded that either we get out now or we will be "stuck" in Nassau until well after Christmas with strong East to Northeast winds 30-35 knots. As the holding is not very good in Nassau harbor we opted (along with Reach) to fore go the rum and get out and cross the Yellow Banks and make a run to the Exumas before the predicted afternoon winds. It turned out to be the right call and we had a fantastic sail across the banks with the wind easing just as we hit the most shallow areas on the bank allowing us to spot the corral heads and dodge around them. Well we arrived in Highborne Cay and dropped our anchor in about 8' of nice sand and after exploring the Beach we invited the "Reachers" over for sundowners and hopefully to catch a glimpse of the elusive "Green Flash"!! We spent a day here and then moved down to Shroud Cay where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had hoped to make Sampson Cay where we would be able to not only meet up with our friends on "Sam the Skull" but be able to get "connected" and call home to wish everyone some Holiday Cheer. The weather did not cooperate and so we put into Shroud Cay...A very beautiful, uninhabited island that is actually part of the Exuma National park. Not too shabby a place to spend the Christmas Holiday!! Of course the Admiral was happy as Santa managed to find her and drop off a much needed Pig ear and Peanut butter bites (thanks Cheryl and Cassie) !! We are now currently in Sampson Cay. We will stay around this area for a little while probably moving down to Staniel Cay for New Years festivities and as the wind is supposed to lay down soon some snorkeling!! We will hopefully be able to update this with some good pictures and stories!! We would like to wish everyone a Very Happy New Years and wish everyone well for the New Year!! Cheers!!

Lake Worth to Miami (SouthBeach)

Welcome to South Beach, Miami!! Aren't we supposed to be in bathing suites by now??? Actually the day we sailed down from Lake Worth we had a beautiful sail...a little chilly but nice wind a little aft of the beam...we cruised down. It was about a 70 mile trip from anchor to anchor..we left at 6:00 am and we had the anchor down and sundowners in hand by 5:30 pm!! We hit Government Cut with the tide against us but we still had the wind behind us..

This beautiful classic boat was coming in the same time as us...

We LOVE South Beach (SoBe) and have had a great time waiting for parts and weather. Of course we are also Dolphin fans and it has been fun catching "Dolphin Fever"!! We hope to have a weather window on this coming Sunday/Monday to cross over to the Bahamas which should mean we can be over there for the Holidays.

While in SoBe we have been able to complete a few projects...like sewing new Curtains!!

We also received our parts for the auto pilot and Dave was able to repair it...fingers crossed that this solves the problem. Of course it has not been all work we have had a couple of excursions into Miami...we went to Little Havana one day and then to Coconut Grove another. The public transportation is fabulous!! For $5.00 per person you can get anywhere you want to go!! We of course visited the local marine store which happens to be next to the South end of South beach and proved to be a "great" walk back to the dinghy dock!! Sunsets are beautiful with the brightly colored lights in the background...

Dave gets plenty of exercise rowing the Admiral to the beach for her morning walk ( she is getting very spoiled here) as she is welcome at all the establishments here in SoBe!!

Due to bad weather we have moved around the area quite a bit and one place we discovered was an anchorage in Sunset Lake which is surrounded by multi million dollar homes...most were welcoming...although you can stay in the lake for up to 7 days you can not land your dinghy so we were only there for about a day and a half and the worst of the weather cleared out we were able to move back to the "designated anchorage" . The local Marine Police are probably the friendliest I have ever come across and provisioning and laundry are very convenient!! We are hoping to get everyone in the anchorage together tomorrow afternoon on "Tilleys Beach" for an afternoon of grilling and getting to know one another...Seeing as we are all "stuck" here!!

Our friends on Reach showed up the other day so of course we welcomed them to SoBe!! Or should I say that they welcomed us as they caught two fish on the way down...Echo didn't catch anything but weeds so far!!

The Internet connection has been horrible from the boat so we had to come into shore and go to a cafe where we could get a connection. I hope that the next time I update this page will be from the Bahamas we'll See.....In case we can't get a connection before Christmas we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years...(Happy Birthday to Amy and Kelsey!!)

Titusville to Fort Pierce

Well we had a change of plans (what a surprise!!) and due to changing weather conditions we opted to run down inside to Lake Worth instead. I hope every one had a Great Thanksgiving...as you can see from the following pictures we did not lack any food or beverage.

Even the Admiral had a chance to don her party scarf and sit with the captain for a few bits of Ham and Turkey!!

After everyone had their fill it was time to enjoy some port with desert!!

Late morning the next day it was time to leave Titusville after a quick visit with our old friend Jon Keyes who was visiting his father in Sebastian. Our original intention was to jump outside at Port Canaveral about 18 miles down from Titusville and run outside overnight to Lake Worth but changing weather conditions and a non working auto pilot did not make hand steering all night seem all that appealing (at least to the first mate!!) Our friends John and Barbara on "Sam the Skull" agreed and decided to remain inside with us also. "Sam the Skull" is a PDQ (pretty darn quick) catamaran that hails from Scotland. The name comes from a song entitled Sam the Skull ( I'm a cat, I'm a cat, I'm a Glasgow cat and my name is Sam the Skull...) anyways from the following pictures you can see that when conditions are in their favor they had no trouble going by "Echo".

Along the way we saw many nice houses including this estate which also gave me my first "dolphin" photo...

We are currently anchored in Fort Pierce in a place called Farber Cove awaiting passage of the latest cold front...while here we enjoyed an evening of fine dining aboard "Sam the Skull" along with a rousing hand of euchre (the girls won!!) to top off the evening.

Tomorrow we will head off to Lake Worth where we will hopefully be able to make a short overnight hop to Miami where we can get caught up with some mail and get the auto pilot fixed (fingers crossed!!)

New Smyrna Beach to Tittusville

Happy Thanksgiving to All!! We are in Tittusville, FL rafted up to our friends John and Barbara on "Sam the Skull" getting ready to celebrate the Thanksgiving Day feast with a group from the Marina...

We moved down to Tittusville on Monday after celebrating our friend Michelle's Big 40 on Echo Sunday Afternoon!! We invited John and Barbara to come up and join in the celebration...a good time was had by all as we "splurged" and made Margaritas in the blender!!

We had to say good-bye (for now) to our friends Mark and Michelle on "Reach" it is always sad to part ways with good friends even when you know that you will see them in a harbor down the way.

We headed off to Tittusville, inside the "ditch" about 30 miles south... forewarned that the "potty police" were boarding boats...as our friends Dave and Kathy on "Pacifica" were boarded while they were anchored in New Smyrna. Their heads were closed but not locked so they only received an $88.00 ticket instead of the normal $250.00 fine. So the day we left we made sure we had the lock in place and lo and behold it wasn't long before the boat in front of us received a boarding and we were soon to follow...

The rest of trip was not very exciting as we did not see any manatees (too cold I'm told) we did see plenty of dolphins as they were busy feeding but they proved too elusive to capture on film!! We did see this lone pelican drying out on the rocks just past the Haulover canal.

We reached Tittusville where we have had the use of a car with various trips to Super Walmart, Home Depot, Winn Dixie, and the laundry mat. All of this is very tiring to the Admiral who need plenty of beauty rest to keep up with everyone at happy hours....

We have been having many "discussions" on what and where we are heading....as the primary goal has been to get south where it is warmer (not yet achieved that one as the further south we head the colder it gets!!!) and work through the kinks on the boat....the latest one being our out of production auto pilot (WP300CX by Simrad/Navico) stopped working as it needs a new belt that is no longer available....all though they make an upgrade to the "clutch" and all you need to do is have a "technician" install it....so we have that on order and hope it will catch up to us in Miami where we can find someone to "install" it for us, meanwhile our friends on "Sam the Skull" have loaned us their "old" Autohelm from their "Johari" days to get us by until the Simrad one is back up and running. So the latest plan is to get to Miami and wait for a good weather window to cross over to the Bahamas....we hope to be in the Bahamas for Christmas, from the Bahamas the plan is to head through the Windward Passage to Jamaica and from Jamaica over the NW Caribbean hopefully by March....that is the plan of the moment keeping in mind that it is subject to change at any time....we will keep you updated!!! We plan to head off tomorrow from Tittusville out Port Canaveral down to Lake Worth hoping to get in by Saturday early afternoon where we can wait out the next batch of nasty weather headed our way....hopefully it will be warmer in Lake Worth!! I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday and we wish our nephew Zachary a very happy 18Th Birthday!!

Oriental, NC to New Symnera Beach, FL via St. Marys, GA

Sorry it has been awhile...poor Internet connections and a computer glitch!! We seem to be OK at the moment so I will do my best to update to present time!!

We made a short run from Campbell Creek to Oriental, NC where we got a weather report that sounded perfect ( beware of perfect weather reports!!) to make a jump from Oriental to Fernandina Beach, FL via the Beaufort inlet. We arrived in Oriental where we filled up fuel and water, did a much needed oil change and hit the grocery store. We were able to get under way early the next morning for the 20 mile run to the Beaufort inlet....there were a whole line of boats looking to make the jump and put some distance under their keels....speaking of distance under the keel we only draw 5' w/the center board up but we did manage to have a quick rub while en route to the inlet....in the bright early morning sunlight range markers look suspiciously like ICW markers!!! No problem it only slowed us down for about 10 minutes as the captain has a sweet touch on the wheel and quick wits about him...the funnier thing was all of the boats behind us were headed to the same spot and you should have seen them scatter when we went aground!! No other problems than that....and we exited the Beaufort inlet at around noon with a weather forecast for the next couple of days for winds to be North to North West 10-15k with maybe the occasional gust to 20k sounded perfect.....

The next morning dawned nice as the wind finally kicked in as we had to motor most of the previous afternoon and evening to get around Frying Pan Shoals. The wind finally filled in around 3:00 am as expected out of the North/ NW. The temperature was not too bad and everything seemed to be working well....the Shepard's pie did much better than the soup on the previous trip!! With roughly 150 miles to go we were all ready figuring on an awkward arrival time to St. Marys/Fernandina Inlet probably around Midnight of the following evening. This is where you should knock on wood or give the wind/water gods a nod as if it seems too good to be true it usually is....It is always surprising to me how quickly the weather can change. ..

We spent the night dodging squalls and battling winds that were gusting up to 30k and building seas. We had been in contact with two other boats, "It's About Time" and "Pioneer" who were also making the same passage. We were in VHF contact with them throughout the night. Early the next morning they received a poor forecast from their weather router, Chris Parker, who advised that they head for the nearest port as conditions were going to deteriorate throughout the day and upcoming evening. We were about 90 miles from our destination still looking at an awkward arrival time so we got the charts and chart books out and decided the prudent thing to do would be to put into Port Royal Sound/ Hilton Head, SC. To do this we actually needed to head a bit north as we were south of the inlet...but the description of the entrance described it as an "all" weather entrance. We tightened up the sails and made for Port Royal in steady 30k winds and building seas, the entrance to Port Royal was well marked as there are shoals on both sides. We fired up the motor (fingers crossed) and ran her for all she was worth as the first 5 miles were straight into the wind with the current just starting to turn in our favor. I give the captain props as he was as calm and cool as a cucumber (the first mate was a bit more nervous and the admiral was sound asleep!!). After the first 5 miles we were able to fall off and put up a little main and actually sail a bit. We decided to head for Cowen Creek as the other 2 boats had radioed us and invited us for a dinner the next day. Our only disappointment was we were hoping to catch up with our friends on "Reach" as they had made it into St. Marys/Fernandina earlier that morning..we were hoping to spend our 26Th wedding anniversary with them catching up and drinking champagne....oh well we had a very nice couple of days in Cowen Creek/Hilton Head, SC.

While we had a few days to kill until the next weather window we decided it would be a good time to get one of our many projects out of the way. Putting a ceiling on the side of the VBirth with the Alder strips we had varnished and stowed for just this down time...

The project came out very nice and it was a perfect calm place to work on it...although our neighbors gave us a funny look when Dave brought out his compressor and nail gun!! After a few days of respite and being able to not only get caught up on some projects and much needed rest we once again got a weather forecast that sounded too good to be true so we made a short over night run down to St. Mary's/Fernandina Beach, Fl. with only a couple of problems....The auto pilot decided it wasn't going to work the entire time and the engine wasn't going to run on starboard tack and once again we sailed so fast we got to our destination in the predawn hours!! Once again the captain had no problems getting us in, in the dark under sail. Once we were in through the breakwaters the engine decided he would run and we headed up the St. Marys River to the anchorage where we were looking forward to meeting up with our friends on Reach.

We had a great couple of dinners aboard not only Reach but their friends Keith and Jamie on board "Kookaburra". St. Marys is a very boater friendly place. They have a welcome center with volunteers to drive you to do your laundry, grocery shopping, and any other errands you may have. They also put on a Thanksgiving Feast for all of the anchor boats in the harbor. Below are pictures of the Welcome Center along with one of the town which is on the St. Marys River.

After we had done some provisioning we headed off to hopefully much warmer conditions...New Smyrna Beach, FL..........

Elizabeth City to Oriental

We are in the anchorage in Oriental, NC...the "Sailing Capitol" of the USA!! We had a pretty "boring" run down the ICW from Elizabeth City. Elizabeth City is a very cool place as they have free slips available on a first come first serve basis. We had waited out weather at the last lock on the Dismal Swamp and the day we left we did not expect to get a spot in Elizabeth City as the Harbor Master said all of the spots were full...we left anyways figuring we would anchor and hopefully be able to lauch the dinghy to get some much needed laundry done....well when we arrived (along w/a couple of other boats) we were able to squeek along side the wall and get all of our laundry done without having to launch said dinghy!! For those of you who don't know about Elizabeth City it is home to the "Rose Buddies". They meet and greet each boat and once day offer a free wine/cheese party along with a rose (for the firstmate) each night in season. Each party includes a factoid about Elizabeth City...our being that all blimps with the exception of the Good Year Blimp are made in Elizabeth City.

Here is where they are housed and built..wish the day was nicer but it was still very overcast and kind of early in the morning when we left. Also while we were in Elizabeth City we visited their Dinner Theater, for $6.00 per person you get a movie in a beautiful theater (first run) we saw Pride and Glory. Dinner and drinks - which of course are extra include anything from a steak dinner to chili dogs!! We splurged with a couple of other boats and had a great time. The next morning we moved on to cross the Albarmale Sound and get to the start of the Alligator River Canal.

We ran the Alligator River Canal which was about a 50 mile run in pretty good time considering we lost our engine when we came out of the canal and into the Pamlico River. We were pretty hard over as of course we were beating to weather so we think we sucked up some air. The engine shut itself down and refused to run until we had beat ourselves up the Goose Neck Creek - a very tight channel in winds on the nose of about 15-20K once again we are very glad to have a boat that is easy to sail. Once we had the anchorage in site the engine decided it would run long enough to get the anchor down. We went through all of the systems and checked our fuel and could find no obvious problem. Just to be safe our old friends, Mark and Alison, on "Angel" "loaned" us 5 gallons of fuel with a promise of a cold beer in the Bahamas. We never saw one alligator in the "Alligator River" only this Eagle taking a much needed rest!!

After arriving in Oriental today, Dave did an oil , we lauched the dinghy and went to shore to get some provisions as we are thinking of moving onto Beaufort, NC and jump outside to Charleston, SC as the weather looks good for this run, no chicken soup this time but we will try a Shepard's pie instead, hopefully we will be able to spend more that 1/2 a day somewhere and get some "nice" pictures downloaded to the blog!! Will keep you posted...more later!!