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We arrived Saturday morning, 0800, at Port Everglades. We hung out for a while at Lake Sylvia, to avoid the worst of the current at our home dock; Susan and Leigh made a reconnaissance mission in the dink to check the current and set a couple of lines. When we got back to Raconteur, JP said - go check out that cat - it might be the French couple we met early in the journey, on Saltimbanque des Flots. Sure enough, it was them. They were trying to find propane, because they were setting off for the Bahamas crossing overnight. We took their tanks, then made our way to 777 Bayshore. JP brought her safely into the dock, stern-to, around 1:45 in the afternoon.
After we got settled, JP and Susan took the tanks to the propane dealer, and dinghied them back to Lake Sylvia in the late afternoon...but not without mishap. The dink hit something in the ICW that sheared the bung and the cord holding it, so they limped to the stern of Saltimbanque with Susan on hands and knees trying to keep her afloat. Luckily, with the pieces and parts aboard SDF and her fellows, they were able to do a field repair, stay for a beer or two, and make it safely back to Raconteur.
Since then, we have made a permanent repair to Scheherazade, had a diver and an electrician, and replaced most of the Lewmar hatches (two will have to wait for the wind to subside, and one for the parts to arrive); we also held a Boat Parade party, strung lights on the lifelines and forestay, and set up our Christmas tree.

Day 47: Fort Pierce and a possible weather window

The lazy blogger returns. We stayed at Hammock Beach until Saturday the 27th, then headed south again. We overnighted at Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach, had a stroll in the historic (Florida-historic) downtown, dined on Thai food, and started to ponder the inside/outside question. Uncle NOAA said conditions for outside would not be favorable until Thursday the 2nd earliest, so we replotted a more leisurely trek toward the best inlet, at Fort Pierce.
First stop on Sunday night was the SE corner of the NASA Causeway/Addison Point Bridge. We cooked the quail that we had picked up in Isle of Hope, and Leigh's famous fried cabbage (handed down from Pearl to Virginia to Beth) for JP's birthday (alas, no cake - bad planning) and had a good night despite the rather blustery conditions.
We had a rainy slog to Melbourne, even a short period of low visibility. We have been very fortunate in our weather for nearly the whole trip (aided by our ability to stay put whenever we felt like it) so no big complaints. Stayed two nights at Melbourne Harbor, mostly because Captain JP caught himself a cold. Nice marina w a good dock bar restaurant steps from the boat (Ichabod's) and a good if expensive Chart House right around the inlet "corner". We made up for the no birthday cake with a shared chocolate lava cake and vanilla ice cream (yes, we had dinner too).
Left Melbourne a little before 8 yesterday and headed for the last (??) ICW stop before home port. The weather window had shifted out a bit but has stayed at Friday/Saturday for several days so we plan to head out the inlet tomorrow, targeting the all-too-necessary slack tide that will occur around 1245 Saturday for our arrival at 777 Bayshore.
Cool to cold at the moment (in the 40's) so the silks will have to come out one more time tomorrow.

Day 40: aka Thanksgiving Day, at Hammock Beach

After several very nice days in the mooring field at Saint Augustine Municipal Marina, we made a short four-hour hop south to Palm Coast, Florida. There is a resort complex here that has a marina for residents and transients just right off the ICW. The marina area is splendid - the restrooms, showers, laundry, business center, fitness center and lounge are all part of a large new condominium building and are brand spanking new. A short shuttle ride takes you to the Hammock Beach resort itself, with multiple restaurants, pools, a spectacular ocean beach, and more things to do than one could manage in a week.
We were planning to leave tomorrow, but...we extended by one day. We are facing some weather challenges for going outside - wind is in the wrong direction, surf is a bit OTT, tide is wrong for an exit at Ponce - so plan now is to head to Canaveral in two ICW hops, Saturday and Sunday, and then to wait for better conditions for the passage home to Port Everglades.
Here are the pictures of the day; I posted them all on Picasa, but they are worth repeating here, I think.

Day 30: Long time no blog

I've been posting pictures every couple of days, but for some reason not hitting the blog. Tonight we have moved on to Georgia: Goodbye Maryland, Goodbye Virginia, Goodbye North Carolina, Goodbye South Carolina. We are staying at Isle of Hope Marina; here is a picture JP or Susan took while I was maneuvering into the fuel dock:

and here is the very definition of service at a marina:

He actually climbed aboard to do the pump out for us. Very impressive.

I spent some time last night compiling some statistics for our journey so far:

~760 statute miles as counted mile marker to mile marker, including the trip down the Chesapeake from Castle Harbor

8 nights at anchor

22 nights at a marina, including tonight and tomorrow night here at Isle of Hope

5 "singleton" marinas

4 two-night marinas, including Isle of Hope

3 three-night marinas

1 free tie-up

We are averaging about 30 statute miles a day. Our longest day was 56 statute miles from Beaufort (NC) Docks to Surf City (Beach House Marina); our shortest 21 statute miles from Bull Creek on the Waccamaw to Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown, SC. The rhythm and pace seem to work well for all of us; you can make the trip in +/- 50 mile increments in a slow boat, but it is much more fun and interesting at the 30 mile average.

Savannah tomorrow.

Day 21: Bald Head to North Myrtle Beach to Georgetown

We docked this afternoon at Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown, SC. We had a great day touring Bald Head Island on Wednesday the 3rd, then headed out at Cape Fear Inlet and back in 24 miles west to Little River Inlet, just at the NC/SC border, and on to a low-key overnight at Barefoot Landing Transient Docks (which for you cruisers out there has no showers at present; restrooms are just those of the mall itself). From there we made our way to the Waccamaw River - absolutely beautiful surroundings.

We anchored overnight on Bull Creek, just off the Waccamaw, about 22 miles from Georgetown, SC. It has gotten very chilly - forecast lows overnight tonight are near freezing - although the daytime highs today and tomorrow are still in the 50's and will be low 60's Monday and back to low 70's Tuesday through Friday. The transit of the Waccamaw has been a joy, because it is wide and deep - a bit curvy in spots, but it's great to watch the depthfinder when "low water" means anything under 15'.

We have a bit of a pickle for tomorrow, because we will hit a well-known trouble spot at McClellanville right about at low or low-ish tide. We may have to anchor just before it and transit at high tide in the morning. We have read various reports, from motorboats grounding, to less than 5' at mid-channel, to "no problem", so we will make our way there and see what happens.

If we are able to transit, then we may head on for Isle of Palms or an anchorage somewhere before Charleston; our friends who live there are in Fort Lauderdale right now (!) so we won't linger but make our way to Beaufort (Bew-fert) SC for a visit instead.

I'm uploading pictures via Picasa S--L--O--W--L-Y so I'll try to come back and add a few to the blog after that finishes...IF it finishes.

PS Susan and JP are slaving because I had to whack the floating dock when we came in here and now they are trying to SCRAPE the stuff from the dock off the hull. I didn't have much choice given the conditions (wind direction, slip and positions of other boats) BUT...

Day 17: Bald Head Island, NC

Had a decent start - made the 0800 opening of the Surf City Swing Bridge, just a quick left from last night's marina



and thanks to a very kind bridge tender, we also made the Figure Eight Bridge; both Surf City and Wrightsville open only on the hour, so ideally if you are slow like us you try to make Figure Eight on the hour, make a leisurely 4 miles or so to Wrightsville to make it one hour later. HOWEVER...for the same slow sail boat, it is a real stretch to make the Figure Eight in an hour after Surf City, and we were about 4 or 5 minutes off. He opened VERRRRYYYY slowly for us, and saved us an hour of transit time today.

The last couple of hours of the trip were on the Cape Fear River, in a lot of wind and current; Susan was helming and JP navigating while I shivered with Pooh



The marina here is very pretty; we will stay two nights and explore the island by golf cart tomorrow. Here is one of the houses that surround the marina

Day 16: Nice progress today

We had planned to go from Beaufort Docks to Swan Point Marina, but got off early (around 0725)


and made good progress despite our many friends.




Here is our last mile marker of the day; we actually made it to 260.6, Beach House Marina, just before the Surf City Swing Bridge.



We plan to head on south to Bald Head Island tomorrow, and treat ourselves to a couple of nights there. Keeping a weather eye on Tomas, which could be troublesome early next week.

Day 15: Update from Beaufort

We left Belhaven on Wednesday the 27th and headed for Oriental. We took a slip at Whittaker Creek Yacht Haven, which is a little way out from town (long walk or reasonable bike ride).



We ended up staying a few nights; the sun protection on the jib sail was coming loose, and when Susan and JP took it down to stitch it, they found a lot more of the thread gone than they expected. On Thursday, we checked with the sail loft on site and they were fully booked (read: already behind on existing commitments) but we found Inner Banks Sail Loft not far away, and they agreed to give it a go. Knute at WCYH took us and the sail over to them, and indeed by noon on Friday they had it out, dried, fixed and beautifully folded, and JP caught a ride with another marina denizen to pick it up.

Thursday night we ate a really good meal at Broad Street Grill (they also picked us up and brought us back to the marina), got dropped off in town in the pouring rain on Friday, had lunch, and when the sun came out, took a rather hot walk back to Whittaker Creek. The deck light had also died, so Knute ordered a new one and a spare from NAPA (it's a tractor light, as it turns out) and JP climbed the mast yet again on Friday to install it.



We borrowed bikes from the marina Friday afternoon and made another trip into town, stopped at "The Bean" for cappucinos (JP and Susan) and mint chip ice cream (Leigh);



another restaurant, the Oriental Steamer, picked us up for dinner on Friday night.

Susan and JP re-installed the jib on Saturday morning, and we headed off for Beaufort.






Whittaker Creek caution: we grounded BOTH entering and leaving the VERY narrow Whittaker Creek channel. We got off both times pretty easily, but that place is a bit of an adventure.

We returned to Beaufort Docks yesterday, our first repeat from our 2008 trip; loving it every bit as much this time.



"Dined" at the local wine bar (mostly enjoyed two nice Pinots and had a small pizza and some NC artisanal chocolate to accompany it) and had fun looking at some wild and crazy Halloween costumes and listening to a band called The New Familials (I think).

JP took our port bike off to the Food Lion for a little light re-provisioning - we will cook jambalaya on board tonight - as we looked at 25+ kts of wind on the nose today and decided to hang here until tomorrow morning, when the speed and direction look a bit more favorable.

We are keeping an eye on Tomas - will hole up in Wilmington, up the Cape Fear River, if need be - and heading to Swan Point (about 45 nauticals away) tomorrow.

Day 10: Belhaven, NC

Arrived here before 2 in howling wind, so the docking was - ahem - interesting. We are safely ensconced for the night and planning to make our way to Oriental tomorrow, weather permitting.
Yesterday hit high winds (but not high enough to close the Alligator River Swing Bridge) and rain on our way to an anchorage in said river; had our second experience ever with dragging after dark, and thus raising and re=anchoring in less than prime conditions. A bit less stressful than the last one (Pumpkin Key in 2005, not long after we got Raconteur) but always...interesting. Second time was the charm and she held fine through the night.
Headed down the Alligator-Pungo Canal today, also in some driving rain for the first hour or so, but then the sun came out AND we actually got to SAIL for an hour or two on our way in to Belhaven. Took an ancient golf cart into town, had true North Carolina BBQ sandwiches at a place called Farm Boys, then risked life and limb to take the cart on out to the Food Lion for some light re-provisioning - including the frozen pizza we had for dinner. Susan did some laundry, JP rescued my pictures from the camera card, and all is right with the world from here.

Day 8: German Chocolate Cake, Smith Island Style

Somehow the card for my Olympus has become corrupted. I can still see the photos on the camera, and can still take pictures, but can't download. I will switch cameras tomorrow, but meanwhile, another BORING text-only blog, interspersed with Internet photos.

We left Crisfield Friday morning, and made a long sail and motor sail to a very weird anchorage off Kiptopeke (KIP-toe-peek) State Park on the southeastern shore of Virginia. There had been a ferry landing there before the building of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, and so the state sank a bunch of concrete ships of WWII vintage to provide a breakwater for the ferry. Now its just an anchorage; the old ferry dock has been replaced by a long fishing pier, and there is a beach at the northern end of the anchorage. We found one sailboat there when we came in, and two more joined us later. It was a little bit rolly, but very comfortable, if a bit eerie. If I can recover the photos, I will post them later. Meanwhile, here is one from the web.

On Saturday, we set off for "The Ditch"; we made good time and hit the Great Bridge Lock (and Bridge) in time to snag a spot on a little dock just south of the bridge. Warm enough for gin and tonics, followed by Beef Stroganoff and round three of our German Chocolate Smith Island Cake (another picture that is sitting on the camera; here is one from internet photos instead).


Peaceful night despite the proximity to the bridge.

Today we motored another 37 miles or so to Coinjock, NC (goodbye Maryland, goodbye Virginia) where we are tied up at the Coinjock Marina and Restaurant for the night.

Think good thoughts for my camera card; we do have two other cameras on board, so not a disaster.

Day 5: Smith Island

We have long wanted to visit Smith Island, which is Maryland's last inhabited island (reachable only by water, unlike our own Kent Island). We finally got the chance today when the weather cleared and after a morning exploring Crisfield (photos on the Google site), including a visit to my friend Cindy's family home on Somerset Avenue just off Main Street, we set off for Smith on the local mail boat.

The island is beautiful; those are pomegranates that are growing there. The visitor center was not open when we arrived, although we did get to stop in before we left on the 4pm return. Here are a few pictures; what they perhaps do not convey is the total intimacy of island life - you have to like your neighbors, or at least find ways to live in harmony and cooperation with them.





Stopped here for a shared crabcake sandwich (Susan and Leigh) and a softshell crab sandwich (JP); they offer Smith Island Cake but we had bought a whole one earlier in the day at the Sweet Shoppe Cafe (run by two Smith Island natives; I'll post about that separately).



We walked a little ways into the marsh but it was warm again today, so the mosquitoes were having a little resurgence.


Saw a gorgeous great blue heron.














This was the mail boat, and a few pictures from the boat when we were leaving the island.







A lovely day. We will head south again tomorrow, to take advantage of a wind shift to the NW, though the seas will be a little bit higher than ideal. Heading for Kiptopeke State Park, a bit of a stretch but we will head out early. We will be on the hook and then just have a few miles to hit Mile 0 on the ICW.

Day 4: Crisfield, cats and dogs

Raining like mad here today, so we will probably stay until Friday morning so we can visit Smith or Tangier Island in nicer conditions tomorrow. Expecting some heavy winds.
Meanwhile, our forward macerator has quit, so after JP and Susan tackled it this morning without success, we have a local marine plumber, and he is here now. We can manage with one head, but...

ERRATUM: I am instructed by the Raconteur Local 410 that it must be said that the even the plumber had to take the offending part back to his shop, and use some combination of a table vise and a locking wrench with a two or three foot handle in order to get the job started. I am so corrected, and meant no disrespect whatsoever to my hardworking maintenance team.

Meanwhile, some images from our first few days, starting counter-clockwise from lower right with a picture taken by our boat neighbor at Castle Harbour; a close encounter with a racer off Annapolis Harbor; JP helming; sunset on Mill Creek (the one near Back Creek, off the Pax); and Leigh helming out of Castle Harbour. Yes, I am still struggling two years later with posting pictures inside the blog!

Day 3: Back to the future

Just exiting the Patuxent River; after two days of sailing from Chester we are back to our 2008 starting point. Good airs, the sun is out, and we are making almost seven knots under sail. We are heading for Crisfield, Maryland, probably for a two night layover.
We did +/- 35 nauticals each if the first two days, but Crisfield is 40+ from Solomons.
Thinking we will hit the Virginia Cut by Sunday.
Posting from iPhone. Pictures later!

T minus 1 and counting (we hope)

Thursday night we did indeed have a little farewell dinner at the Severn Inn; here is a picture of JP and our friend Kay.

Susan spent yesterday morning finishing a sewing project, JP did some non-boat client work, and I harvested the herbs in our Maryland garden to freeze and store for the trip. From the lower right, clockwise, you see mint, oregano, marjoram, lemongrass, basil, sage, rosemary, tarragon and lemon thyme. It was fun, time-consuming, and a little weird to be working with 'earth produce' when we are heading to sea. Here are the 'before ' and 'after' photos...doesn't look like four hours of work does it? And it was SO much prettier BEFORE, no?
Today we loaded the food - fridge and freezer are full - and more clothes - and generally ran around like crazy (sometimes in circles) trying to be ready to head a whopping 35 nautical miles south tomorrow. It's a weird thing to prepare for some unknown number of months away from this house, two months or so on the ICW, some time in Florida (and, for Susan, New Hampshire), AND (to some extent) for the Bahamas or even the Tropics.
ETD 0800 off the dock, probably 0845 off the fuel dock and pump out at Chester Harbor. Two possible first stops, Cason Point on the Little Choptank, or Herrington Harbor on the Western Shore.
Think good thoughts for us.

Non Photo Update (borrring!!)

Having our farewell dinner tonight with Kay, Judy and Tom at the Severn Inn, but the actual departure will likely be Sunday thanks to the possibility of "GALE WARNINGS" in the Bay tomorrow and Saturday. Susan spent most of yesterday afternoon with our excellent electrician and instructor Bob, fresh from the Annapolis Boat Show, as our Galvanic Isolators needed to be replaced. Since neither Susan nor I (can't speak for JP) had even HEARD of Galvanic Isolators (and were uncertain as to whether Raconteur even had them), it was indeed a useful experience. The symptom (zincs replaced three weeks ago, 35% gone) is probably caused by the non-functioning GA's (don't ask why that acronym) and so we are hoping to at least see a slowdown in the erosion. Tomorrow we are having another electrician replace part of our shore power, as something else (we think) caused the boat end of the cable to be sufficiently hot to have burn marks.
See, told you this would be boring.
Promise farewell photos and setting off photos on Sunday...of course, promising things in sailing is a bit of a challenge to the sailing gods...
However, for unedited pictures of my trip to Portugal with Jackie, Joan and Cindy, go to
http://picasaweb.google.com/home

...and not a moment to be lost

Once the Blue Peter is flying, everyone knows there is not a moment to be lost. Cruise preparation is not very exciting, so we have not been posting regularly (for your sake). But, on October 2 we took some photos for a "typical prep day" post.

We have turned out and inventoried (and cleaned) every 'storage location' on Raconteur. It turns out there are 84. Surprising what you find in some of these holes. But, now we know what's there and where it is. There are 914 unique item/location combinations.

This is the aft end of the banquette on the starboard side of the saloon. It's where we store many of the spares and repair materials. There is not a particular organizing principle inside (except that whatever you want is under at least 5 other things).

This is the tiny banquette in the forward cabin. It is actually pretty deep and has maybe half of our tools, including most of the electrical tools (voltmeter and such).

This is the port lazarette in the cockpit. It contains all of our dock lines (12), hoses, power cables, and a bunch of other things including the dinghy anchor and engine hoist.

You get the picture. The whole job took more than a week (interspersed with many other things) but it's great to have it done.

October 2 was the first calm sunny day in a while, so we took the opportunity to mark the anchor chains. It's amazing how hard it is to estimate how much chain is out when you are in the process of anchoring. The main anchor chain is 200 feet long, although in most anchorages we are within the first 50 feet.

While the paint was drying, we went up the mast to inspect and tape a few things, and place a line to raise the new radar reflector.

Pretty good view from up here!

Greek poetry, new horizons, and the Blue Peter

Today, I am cleaning out my AF office for the last time, and heading tomorrow to Europe (Paris and Monaco with my niece Cassady, then Sintra, Lisbon and Porto in Portugal with Cindy, Jackie and Joan).
When I return to the States on the 11th of October, JP and Susan and Raconteur will, if all goes well, be somewhere south of the Chesapeake, and I will join them whereever "there" turns out to be. We will meander down the ICW, looking for warm weather, planning to arrive in Lauderdale in early/mid December. We will be there for a few weeks, then start looking for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. Next scheduled event: Cassady and Adam's wedding in Ohio, September 3 2011!
Courtesy of Jean-Philippe, this poem has been hanging over my desk at the AF for several years; it seems an appropriate re-start to the blog.

Ithaka (1911)
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of of them:
you'll never find things like that one on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenciian trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfumes of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean
Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933)