Heading for Beaufort, SC

May 18-19, 2010

Charlie decided we would sail all night from St. Augustine so we would arrive in Beaufort the next morning, It was a pretty sunny day, but there was almost no wind. We put up the sails to get them dry, so we were motor sailing. We were still making over 6 knots. There was no traffic until dusk. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset. By night the wind had picked up to 10-12. It was a starry night with a sliver of moon. Radar help to identify the few boats we encountered overnight. After midnight we had winds up to 15-18kts. We arrived at the Port Royal entrance just before 8a.m. and arrived at the Port Royal Landing Marina by 10:15 a.m. Charlie and I take 3 hour watches when we are sailing all night. We enjoyed a relaxing quiet day reading and sleeping. We had dinner with our friend Marianne Mikell who lived on Cat IS. Tomorrow we head back to Charleston and home.

Continuing in St. Augustine

May 15, 17, 2010

Charlie and I both rode the Red Train van to Old St. Augustine. We decided to have brunch at O.C. Whites before we started touring on the red train. O.C. Whites dates from 1700's and has a huge growth of jasmine under which patrons eat outside. It was beautiful and fragrant. After lunch, we rode the train along the entire route and got off when it came to the Castillo de San Marcos, the large fort along the waterfront. A Park Ranger gave the history of the fort after which we walked around until the "Spanish crew" prepared to fire off one of the cannons. The firing exercise was elaborately choreographed, but very entertaining. The period clothing was grand looking. The officer in charge even had

a sword. Afterward we went across the street to the White Lion for a drink. It was advertised as an English Pub, but it had nothing resembling english pub grub! It was disappointing. We wandered through the old part of the town checking out restaurants. We looked at the menu of "Harry's" and walked to Scarlet O'Hara's, but ended up in the secluded courtyard of Herrera House, a small Italian restaurant. We took a cab back to the Conch House Marina where the Sunday Reggae Party was still going strong!

It started raining at 2 a.m. on Monday and rained heavily most of the day. we were expecting a service person to look at our refrigerator/freezer. He showed up a little late due to weather, but did a thorough job and declared it was working as it should. There were no freon leaks and the compressor was functioning correctly. The marina pumpout boat was still not fixed so we had to go to the fuel dock during high tide to be pumped out. At low tide we are stuck in the mud! we ate

at the marina for lunch and ate dinner on the boat. I had to throw out a bunch of meat that I was afraid was questionable due to the freezer not being low enough so often. We prepared to depart the next day if the weather was not raining cats and dogs.

Touring St. Augustine

Saturday, May 15, 2010

After breakfast, I decided to try to go to St. Augustine to ride the "red train" which had a van which would pick me up at the marina motel office. Charlie decided to stay at the marina to try to get on the internet, sit by the pool and read instead of sight seeing. Riding the "red train" I would save my feet and get an overview of Old St. Augustine. I could get on and off it and use my ticket for three consecutive days. I was also able to get discount tickets for some of the other sites as well.The whole tour would take about 1 and 1/2 hour. I departed the train to see the Dow Historic houses which dated from 1839, 1820 to 1909 and 1910. I was somewhat disappointed because they were not kept up well and the grounds were messy and looked unkept as well.

Instead of waiting to catch the train again, I walked a block or two to reach the Lightner Museum which is housed in the old Alcazar Hotel built by Henry Flagler in 1888. The grounds are beautifully kept and the building is also very interesting. The St. Augustine City Hall uses the front part of the hotel and the museum is in the back. There is a beautiful enclosed courtyard between the two parts . As I was eating lunch in the courtyard, a wedding was

taking place on the bridge over the water feature. The museum is unusual because they allow pictures to be taken throughout. The displays are in various areas of the old hotel: gymnasium, ballroom on the third floor, etc. Lightner had extensive collections of cut glass, glass objects, china, natural science artifacts, furniture, buttons, toys, needlecraft including a number of samplers and handmade lace from the 1800's. The collection is from "The Gilded Age" which a volunteer described as from the end of the Civil War until the Great Depression.

Flagler College is now housed in what was Henry Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel which opened earlier in 1888 than the Alcazar. It had hot and cold running water and electricity. Guests were afraid of the electric switches so Flagler had to hire persons to turn on the lights as guests entered the

rooms. I hope to tour this later. Henry Flagler had a great influence on the city and architecture of St. Augustine which her turned into the "Newport of the South".

I returned to the marina about 5 p.m. The fishing tournament was still going strong and their party was tonight. We enjoyed a quiet cocktail hour on the boat and then ate some leftovers from previous meals. I hope to get Charlie to Old St. Augustine tomorrow.

St. Augustine, FL

Friday May 14, 2010

The night was cool, very comfortable and great for sleeping. We are plugged into shore power, so the refrigerator can be on except when we have air conditioning on. After a very leisurely breakfast, we thoroughly cleaned all the salt off the boat, and then filled up the water tanks. We ate a late lunch again at the Conch House restaurant in one of the tiki huts. During our lunch we were able to see the last Space Shuttle launch. We saw two burns. Cape Canaveral is south of St. Augustine about a day's sail away, but much closer by car!

Conch House Marina is on the Anastasia Island across the bridge from St. Augustine. The St. Augustine Lighthouse is on this island just down the road from the marina. It didn't look too far so we headed out walking to the lighthouse which we could see from the marina. It took a while, but not too long. There has been some kind of a lighthouse on Anastasia IS since the 1500's. First the Spanish controlled this, then the British and then America. they claim that this is the oldest lighthouse in the US, although several different buildings have been used. The latest was built in 1871 and restored in the 1990's. It is a nice museum and park. They had an excellent audio program that went with the entrance fee. We climbed the 219 steps to the top and had a panoramic view of the area. The picture of the marina is from up there. The lighthouse is black and white stripes with a red top. It has a first order Fresnel lens which is the biggest size. The lighthouse keepers houses were quite large ( for a lightkeeper's house)and very nice and they could hunt game and fish to feed their families. Usually several families lived there.

We walked back to the marina through the neighborhood. The marina is hosting a big fishing tournament this weekend. The fshermen ( and probably women) were in and enjoying "Happy Hour". There was quite a crowd at the bar up on pilings adjacent to the marina. Many fish had been caught and they were filleting them on the docks below the bar. Many fishermen were going home with fish steaks that evening. We stopped in for drink on the deck before returning to the boat. Since we had a late lunch we ate a light dinner on the boat. We also hooked up the cable TV to the boat and caught up on the news and weather.

Biscayne Bay exit, Lake Worth, St Augustine

Monday May 10,2010

We spent the last day in Biscayne Bay getting ready to travel again, filling water tanks, going to the grocery gratis of the couple in the next slip at the marina and doing a pump out. We also walked to "The Grove" to the Sand Pit for dinner with some others at the marina. Charlie decided to stay in the marina instead of on a mooring ball. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset in Dinner Key Marina looking toward Coconut Grove.

Tuesday May 11, 2010

We left the marina around 0900 and proceeded to another one for fuel. Then we headed out of the Miami channel via the Fisherman's Cut. The waves were very turbulent going out due to wind going against the outgoing tide. Once we turned more northerly, the waves calmed down a bit but were still high The winds was 16-18 knots from the East. We had one reef in the main sail. It was rocking and rolling. It was too rough to go below to make sandwiches so we got by with peanut butter crackers and cokes. I actually was suffering a bit from seasickness . The winds died down to 12-13 in late afternoon, but at about 8 p.m. (2000), they picked up to over 20 and the seas got much rougher. We were near the area of Lake Worth Inlet so Charlie decided we should stop for the night. It was past sunset, but we have gone into and out of that channel in the dark before, so we felt confident we could enter safely at night. We safely managed the channel and were anchored in Lake Worth south of the channel by a little after 9 p.m. It felt good to stop and get some rest. We had planned on going all the way to Ft. Pierce that day, but it is always wise to stop early if the weather or conditions are not good. We felt pretty beat up.

May 12-13, 2010

We were on our way back out to the Atlantic Ocean by 0830 on Wednesday. We planned to continue on to Ft. Pierce.

We put one reef in the main expecting high winds again today. There were a little less strong, 12-15 most of the day. Soon we were in the Gulf Stream and going 8, 10, and 11 knots with its help. Since it was early afternoon when we neared Ft. Pierce, we decided to just keep going on to St. Augustine instead of stopping for the night.

We had each had a good night's sleep and felt up to it. By 9 p.m. the Gulf Stream was leaving us by going more easterly so our speed slowed down and the winds also decreased below 10 kts and became more SE on our stern. We began motoring at about 10 p.m. and continued through the night even taking first the jib down and then the main. It was a beautiful starry night. The winds were still under 7 kts in the morning so we continued to motor. We arrived at St Augustine channel at 1 p.m. and were at the Conch House Marina by 1:30. However, it was an extremely low tide and we could not get all the way into the slip. We were tied up 3/4 of the way in but we had to have them bring the work boat over for us to even get off the boat. A dredging boat was in their channel dredging it out! We certainly saw why! I hope they dredge the slips as well. We went up to their very nice restaurant for a late lunch. The restaurant has small tiki huts at which you can eat. It was several more hours before we could get the boat close enough to the side of the slip to get off the boat. Their work boat took us back to out boat so we could reboard it after lunch. The night was cooler and very comfortable! We were too tired to clean all the salt off the boat, so it will just have to wait till tomorrow.

Rodiquez Key and Biscayne Bay

May 7, 2010

We left Marathon about 8:30 in the morning with light SE winds so we had to motor for awhile. We did put up the main and jib hoping for more wind. After lunch, we were able to turn off the engine and even put up our third sail, the staysail. Our winds ranged from 8-12 knots. We were anchored by 6 p.m. There were only 3 other boats at the anchorage. Nature gave us another beautiful sunset. We had a nice dinner onboard and enjoyed the stars which were more visible without all the ambient light from a town.

May 8, 2010

We left the anchorage at 0830. with almost no wind and the Hawk Channel was glassy even without any ripples. Needless to say, we were motoring. There were lots of fishing boats out on this beautiful Saturday morning. There was lots of traffic. We finally put up a sail after lunch but still had to motor sail. The closer to Miami and Biscayne Bay the traffic increased. We took down the sails as we entered the Biscayne Bay channel. It was a good thing due to all the motor boats whizzing past us in that channel. A small seaplane actually landed next to the channel and then took off again. Once we were in Biscayne Bay, we raised the sails again but there wasn't much wind. We decided to stay 2 nights at Dinner Key Marina to allow us easier access to laundry facilities, pumpout, water and a grocery store. We were in a slip on Pier 5 by 5p.m. We had dinner on board. It was very HOT and STEAMY! Rain clouds were all around but we never got wet.

May 9, 2010

It was laundry day. The marina had industrial washers which hold more than

regular machines and they only cost $1.25 which is a bargain. Dryers were also $1.25. Charlie worked on the AC most of the morning and finally got it working somewhat. It was 82 degrees at 7a.m. It only got hotter. We walked to Scotty's Landing for lunch about 2 p.m. There was still a crowd for Mother's Day. It has a great view of Biscayne Bay. We continued on to the Fresh Market after lunch. Charlie left me there to go to the liquor store and we met back at the marina. It was still HOT! I cleaned out the refrigerator so I could put in new items, refilled water bottles and restocked the sodas. We checked our e-mail. As it cooled off we invited the person on the next boat to join us for cocktail hour. He is a pilot for Amercan and is to fly tomorrow so he only had a coke. We had actually met him last year when we stayed at this marina. He races on "Primal Scream" which won their class and the Palmetto Cup at Charleston Race Week a few weeks ago. We ate dinner on the boat again. Tomorrow we will pump out and fill the water tanks before we move to the mooring field. Tuesday morning we will leave the Miami area and sail overnight to Ft. Pierce, FL.

Marathon again

May 5-6, 2010

The skies were clear with just a little wind when we left Key West heading north again to Marathon or Boot Key. We were able to sail for about an hour without the motor, but when the wind dropped below 5kts, we added the engine at 2000 rpm which boosted our speed from 2-3 kts to 5-6 kts. There were some fishing boats out and at one time we were passed by 10 large fishing boats which were following each other south to Key West. We had to deal with all their wakes for a while. We arrived in Marathon about 4 p.m. and were on the mooring ball by 4:15 (1615). It was hot and there was still very little wind. We put the dinghy into the water ( from on top of the cabin) and put the outboard on the dinghy. Charlie made a trip to the Dockside Bar for some ice. He stayed and had a libation before returning to the boat for dinner aboard. It didn't cool off much until the morning. Thank goodness for the fans on the boat!

We had a leisurely breakfast , then got into the dinghy to go to the West Marine. Previously one could go up the small channel cut into the mangrove trees to the Marathon Boat Yard dinghy dock, but it was blocked by floates used to trap oil spills. We tried to find another small channel up to the West Marine but were unsuccessful. We finally tied the dinghy up near Burdine's and walked about a mile

or so to the West Marine. They now have a new bigger store close to where the old one was. We picked up a new remote microphone for our VHF to use in the cockpit. Our present one has been cutting in and out, which is frustrating because you never know if who you are trying to contact is hearing you or not. Back at the boat, Charlie installed the new remote microphone and it worked great! After having a light lunch, we headed into the Marathon City Marina office to pay for our mooring and to get onto the internet. I also recycled our cans,

bottles, etc there. They have added some additional dinghy docks in front of the marina office. We also discovered that the dock near the grocery stores is no longer available for use by dinghies. This makes getting groceries much more difficult. We sat under a big fan, out of the afternoon heat and answered e-mails. After buying more ice, we headed back to the boat. We went to the Dockside for dinner. It is owned by the son of our Mt. Pleasant, SC friends, the Beckers. We enjoyed the food and entertainment and the sunset. There are many empty moorings here in Marathon.

We will leave Marathon tomorrow. We will anchor tomorrow night at Rodiquez Key and proceed on to Biscayne Bay the next day.

Key West continued

May 3-4, 2010

Having done the laundry and soaked up the sun on Sunday, we had other errands to run on Monday. We went to the post office to mail a card, ate some lunch at a lovely garden : Kelly's and bought some groceries at Faustos on Flemming St. After taking the groceries back to the boat, we walked back to the Tropic Cinema where we saw "the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" with subtitles. This is the European film of this book and was very good. It also got us out of the mid-day heat of 87 degrees and as much humidity! This cinema is an Art Cinema, very posh and just half a block off Duval Street . We enjoyed a frozen drink at Fogarty's on Duval and then found a drug store to buy a Mother's Day card. Then back to the boat where we cleaned up and ate dinner on the boat.

Tuesday, I e-mailed a KA who lives in the Key West area because we couldn't find a telephone # for him. I gave him our cell phone numbers and said we would like to see him if he had time. After doing some chores on the boat we headed out to OD Fish House and while there, he called. He was about 45

minutes north of KeyWest but he came down to meet us. We had about an hour and a half chat with him before Charlie had to go do some errands and I walked back with our friend, Sloan Bashinsky to Harpoon Harry's where he suggested we have breakfast one morning. I had the boat pumped out and filled the water tanks in preparation of leaving the next day. Sloan had also recommended Pepe's where we had eaten on a former trip and we ate dinner there that night. I didn't get any pictures because I didn't have the memory chip in my camera.

Key West, FL

May 1-2, 2010

Up early again we put a reef in the main because the winds were forecast to be 15-20 again. However they were rarely above 12-15 so we shook out the reef. It was a beautiful sunny day so we had a good sail to Key West arriving about 4:15 to the Conch Harbor Marina. We cleaned up and after a cocktail hour aboard the boat went out to dinner and watched the sun go down.

Sunday, May 2

We spent the day relaxing at Dante's restaurant and pool enjoying a sun and people watching. I also did the laundry while enjoying the pool. It is now HOT here.We ate lunch at the pool before retreating back to the boat out of the sun. We ate at the Raw Bar for dinner. Charlie enjoyed some Stone Crabs...yum and I had some corn clam shrimp chowder and salad.

We will have to do some grocery shopping, visit the West Marine and explore more of Key West tomorrow.

Rodiquez Key to Marathon

April 30, 2010

We left Rodiquez Key with one reef in the main sail as the winds had been over 16 knots all night. They were SE at 18-21 knots all day with cloudy skies and sprinkles and rain intermittantly. We were comfortable making over 7 kts over the ground all day as well. We were very confortable. The sun began to shine more as we traveled south and by the time we arrived in Marathon (Boot Key Harbor) and were on a mooring ball, it was sunny and hot. We showered on the boat, had a lovely cocktail hour and ate aboard. It was a balmy night.

Miami, FL

April 28, 29,2010

Wednesday morning we went to the local Fresh Market which has many delectable products and a HUGE deli. On the way back to the Dinner Key Marina, we stopped off for some lunch at Scotty's. Charlie took off for the Coconut Grove Walgreens and a liquor store while I headed off for the Vizcaya. both of us had our own adventures in finding our way to our destinations. Charlie had a much longer walk than expected, but finally succeeded.

I took the coconut Grove Connector bus for 25 cents to the train station where I proceeded to try to get a day pass for $2, but ended up with a pass for #5 and a day pass for $2. Vizcaya was just one sto

p north from Coconut Grove station. Once I was on the train it only took 4 minutes to the next stop! There was a lovely overpass walkway over US 1 to Vizcaya which was about a block away. Vizcaya was the summer home for James Beering built in early 1920's as his summer home. He made his money with International Harvester eventually

. It s a beautiful villa overlooking Biscayne Bay and has extensive gardens. Many families were there taking pictures of their 15 year old daughters for the Cinco de Mayo celebrations. They had beautiful ball gowns on. I managed to get back to the train station, catch the train south and catch the Coconut Grove connector back to the Marina area in time to get ready for dinner out.

We went out to dinner with our friends John and Janet Smiljanic who lived in Indianapolis long ago, They now live in Coconut Grove for the second time. We went to dinner near Miami Beach and they gave us a tour of the area of the Miami strip with the famous Art Deco hotels and nightspots. These

places were really lively! We appreciate the Smiljanc's warm hospitality each time we visit the Miami.

We were up and out on Biscayne Bay by 0830 on Thursday April 29th heading south to Rodiquez Key. Winds were 10-12 in the morning and increased to 15-17 in the afternoon so we had a grand day of sailing. Wind power saves a lot of fuel. Just as we were approaching Rodiquez Key, the border patrol boat approached us with questions of where we had been, # of persons aboard, did we have any weapons, where were we headed, etc. They were polite. They also approached several other boats at this anchorage which s close to Key Largo.

Ft. Lauderdale to Biscayne Bay

April 26-27, 2010

The rain and winds did come on Monday morning until mid-afternoon when it cleared up. We enjoyed a lovely walk on the Ft. Lauderdale beach across the street from our marina. While it had been a beehive of activity on the weekend, it was practically vacant and pristine on this Monday. It is a pretty beach with huge long needle pine trees and palms. It has many grills and tables for groups to enjoy. There s a very nice playground for children, basketball court and numerous volleyball courts on the beach. We enjoyed a quiet sunset cocktail hours on the boat and ate aboard.

Tuesday morning found us up early and departing for our trip to Miami and Biscayne Bay. We started with 12-13 kts of wind from the NW so we were abel to sail until about noon when the winds dropped to under 5 kts and we had to use the iron wind ( the engine). We entered Miami through the Govt. cut and switched to the Fisher IS cut continuing on into Biscayne Bay to Dinner Key Marina. We cleaned up the boat and ourselves and walked up to Coconut Grove for dinner at the Jaguar Restaurant. It was a beautiful night with a full moon over Miami.