We spend a full day in Calabash Bay and rowed ashore to hike up to Columbus Monument. It was a bit of a row, and a long hike, but a nice easy one on a wide road with very little traffic. Beautiful views up at the Monument as well. Aria …
Today we had some nice winds to make our way toward Long Island. We finally heading out of Georgetown and then back up the Exumas and back over to Rock Sound Eleuthera as our destination to meet up with family there. But since the winds are good for heading to …
After our traumatic night with the dingy, and the crapy nature of this mooring ball in the current, we woke up and decided to move over to an area called the aquarium to check that out. We were considering just dingying over from Cambrige, but it was time to leave …
We spent two days in Warderick Wells. Aria and Theone did some hiking on the island during the day, while I stayed on the boat to get some work done.
The next morning we sailed off the mooring ball. We were the last ones out, so there were no other …
After a long rolly night and not much sleep, we woke up slightly grump and got underway. We slipped the mooring ball and sailed out with a double reefed main in the strong winds. When we got to the deeper areas we rolled out a bit of genoa and were …
Super light wind day today, and we woke up to a very calm morning. I wanted to check out the well that was nearby, they say it was even used by pirates back in the day. I didn't realize there was any natural fresh water here, but this proves me …
We wanted to row around some of the mangroves in Shroud Cay, so we packed up some food and water, our snorkel gear, and set forth in our dingy. The entrance to the creek was near where we were moored and it was a quick row over there. The current …
Our second day in Rock Sound we woke up to a pretty wavy anchorage. We got into town for some provisions and I got a bit of extra water to top up our tanks. After that we motored over to the other side of the Sound to find a much …
We had a nice few days in Hatchet Bay, very well protected from some of the winds we were getting. It was nice to be at a super flat anchorage this time.
Our first day at Hatchet Bay we got invited to the beach with a couple of the other …
After a rolly and long night, we were excited to get going and get into Hatchet Bay where there is great protection from everything, and thus nice clam waters. We hat lots of room and nice winds so we sailed off anchor and started heading upwind towards Hatchet Bay. Just …
It was time for us to move on again. We had a beautiful day with some nice light winds, so we sailed off anchor and headed towards Current Cut, where you can cut through into the Bight of Eleuthera. It's called Current Cut, because as you can imagine, the current …
Spanish Wells was a fun stop for us. We were anchored out front of the harbour which worked well with the north winds we were having while we were there. The row in was about half a nautical mile, which was a solid workout going into town and back.
Our …
Winds were looking nice finally after many days of easterly winds, so we decided to make a big hop over to Spanish Wells. The winds were looking like we might have wind on the beam, but as is often the case, the winds seemed to be close hauled the entire …
After getting to White Cay (maybe more commonly called Hoffmans Cay, which is the larger Cay right here as well), we were ready to finally stop and relax a while. We had 5 other kid boats with us here, all part of the Berry Christmas group. Our first night in …
After a good sleep we woke up and had some time to enjoy the place we were in before moving down to White Cay where our buddy boats where. We were the only boat in the anchorage and it seemed crazy how beautiful and empty the place was. Aria and …
As we relaxing on anchor at Gin Sur Mer on our first day after crossing over, a plan was being formulated by the group of kid boats to head out that evening for an overnight sail to the Berry Islands, specifically to White Cay about half way down the chain …
We spent one night in West Plam Beach, and the next day I rowed Theone into a nearby boat ramp to head into the city to pick up our packages from the UPS store, and to get our last minute groceries. The weather window was looking ok. But more than …
We spent two days at anchor near Marriot Resort, just south of Jensen Beach. It was a nice anchorage to stop and get some rest. Lots of wind the past couple of days and there were probably at least 15 kite surfers out zipping around the bay.
We spent our …
So we ended up spending a lot of time in Jensen Beach (7 days!). We originally planned just a few nights to re-provision, but then the weather was getting ugly so we just stayed, and then stayed longer.
We did rent a car there for 2 days which was super …
We spent two nights at anchor in Fort Pierce Inlet. Where we had anchored was right beside a beach where we could easily row to shore and leave the dingy. So we did that, and got some groceries, pizza, ice cream and all the good things that are usually hard …
With a nice weather window to sail down the coast, we left the marina in St. Augustine just before 9:30am in order to catch the bridge opening at 9:30. We left in a bit of a rush, but made it through the bridge and then motored onward out …
We spent three nights at the marina in St. Augustine. We originally booked 2, but as usual, 2 is never enough. They day you arrive is always spent getting there, getting settled, showering, cleaning up the boat, etc. Day 2 ends up rushed, provisioning, trying to site see a bit …
We had heard a lot of good things about St. Augustine, and so we decided this would be our next stop along the way. We were going to take the ICW down, but weather was looking pretty nice for a sail outside, and so we decided to take that weather …
We decided to make a stop at Cumberland Island yet before leaving the area. So we finally pulled up anchor and motored the short 9NM sail from St. Marys to Cumberland Island. Or first anchor attempt was a bit too close to the sand bar, so we pulled up and …
So we ended up spending 4 nights at anchor in St. Marys. The anchorage was busy, and tight, but we held well despite the back and forth of current and wind that kept us rotating all over the place.
We were in St. Marys after hearing about the city hosting …
We spent two nights at the Harbourwalk Marina in Georgetown. Really great facilities, and it was nice to be at dock for a couple of nights. Cold nights means we could also run our electric heater at night, which is a nice luxury. Aria also was able to meet up …
Raised anchor and motored out of the creek. Low tide on our way out (was high on our way in) but still pretty good depths, nothing under 8 foot. Motored past a few other sailboats anchored along the creek on our way out.
Pretty easy day, just motoring along again …
Our next destination was Georgetown, but we were more than a day out from there. We picked up hook after a nice breakfast and coffee and headed back into the ICW southbound. We had a couple possible anchorages in mind, and as we made our way we decided on a …
Alright, so this post starts on November 14th early in the morning for our haul out. As scheduled we got into the travel lift early in the morning, and very efficiently got hauled out. Lots of staff on hand, and very well organized for our haul out.
We got up …
We talked to Zimmerman's boatyard, and made a plan to get in there. Because of tides we needed to get into the travel lift at a specific time so that we'd be at high tide with little current. This resulted in us needing to be there at 6am, so we …
A bit unsure of our destination for the day, but we were eyeing up Carolina Beach as the likely destination. We all had showers, feeling refreshed and clean, and we set off the docks around 9am. The entrance at Harbour Village is narrow, but we saw great depths the whole …
Got up too early, and left the anchorage just after 6am. It was a windy morning, and typical of one of those days you don't want to pick up anchor and leave. But we need to keep moving and so against all odds (I'm not a morning person) we left …
Up early today for a long motor to Morehead City. It was slightly foggy but only that slight fog where you only ever see it at a distance.
Easy start, and basically just a long motor today. I thought we had enough fuel to make it to Morehead City where …
Woke up to a nice perfectly calm morning again. We spent most of the morning talking to boat yards trying to find a place to take us in and hopefully replace our rudder bushings. The amount of play has been growing, and as much as I had hoped it wasn't …
We woke up to an absolutely still Alligator River. It's called a river, but it is 3.5NM across, and so it looks like a giant bay. Always neat to see such large bodies of water without a single ripple on them, especially so when you are floating on them …
We were one of the last boats to leave the dock in the morning, which is kind of nice because we tend to motor slow (5.5 to 6 knots), and so end up getting passed by everyone. I guess it makes sense to try and go as far as …
Nice calm morning at the free dock in Great Bridge. We called over to the marina across the way to stop in for some diesel. After they had some room at the fuel dock we pushed off and crossed the narrow channel to top up on fuel, and then headed …
We woke up a little late in the morning after the windy night. Much calmer the next day, and everyone seemed to have left the anchorage very early in the morning. That was a good sign the Belt Line Bridge was operating again, so that was good. We monitored the …
We finally set out and headed into the ICW today. Easy off the dock in the morning and motored out of Hampton, into the bay and then across to the Elizabeth River to start our way down the ICW. It was very windy and on the nose, so we motored …
Spent a couple of days at Safe Harbour Blue Water on the dock. We went and did a Hampton Horror Tour which was super fun, and visited a very well maintained Carousel (haunted this time of year).
We didn't end up doing much the last day, but Aria did get …
Short 14NM motor day today. Lazy morning watching the planes fly overhead. I finally braved the water as I wanted to jump in to check for some play in the rudder which I need to do from the water. I've kind of been dreading this as the water isn't very …
We stayed for 2 nights in Jackson Creek. Day 2 was just spent on the boat, doing school work, and completing a bunch of boat projects. Installed a new bilge pump (automatic switch wasn't working on the old one anymore), finally found the issue with water in the bilge after …
We spent 2 nights in Prentice Creek. Fist night we were all alone, but second night a beautiful Tartan 3700 (a boat we really like) and a small motor cruiser anchored up with as well. We decided to make a trip across the inlet to visit Hughlett Point Natural Area …
We spent 2 nights in Smith Creek which was nice. It was a beautiful little anchorage I think we would have gladly spent more time at. We spent the second day there doing work, and Aria did her school day on the little beach along the bay. Everyone got some …
It was time to leave the dock again and head out. We untied the lines, and put the boat into forward and realized we weren't moving. Turns out at low tide we were sitting in the mud with our keel at the dock. Ended up getting pulled off the dock …
Two full days for us (20th and 21st) here in Solomons Maryland. Day one we went and visited the Calvert Marine Museum. Very cool museum with lots of different things to see. Lots of very nice aquariums which I always love, and a fully restored lighthouse with lots of history …
Stayed 2 nights on anchor in Hudson Creek. Very quiet area this time of year. Lots of big homes on the creek but they all look shut up for the season it seems like. I did a bunch of dingy sailing on our down day which was nice. Strongest winds …
We spent 3 nights in Sheephead Cove. Very beautiful area, and we were able to go ashore where there is a large park owned by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. We did some hiking and geocaching on the trails there both days which was nice. I did some dingy sailing …
After our provisioning run yesterday it was time to finally get off the dock and continue on. It was a very gusty morning, and as usual one of those days you don't really want to leave the dock. All the whistling wind in the rigging and haylards slapping makes it …
We ended up spending 4 nights at the Eastport Yacht Center here in Annapolis. Kind of expensive at $4/ft per foot per night during the boat show, but we needed the downtime and the space at the dock we got here was quite excellent, only a few steps away …