Our Trip on Just Ducky Comes to a Sudden Finish

 

End of the Journey

I know I usually start my note where we last left off, but I have to work backwards this time.  While leaving the anchorage in Mill Creek yesterday morning, I was at the helm and we bumped the bottom.  Mat was on the bow putting the anchor away and as we bumped, he went forward and hit his left thigh on the metal roller furler.  After trying to get through the day to get to a port with a doctor, we arrived at Solomons Island in Maryland.  We got the bad news that he severed the tendon that attaches the quad muscle to the patella. Not a good thing at all. He definitely needs surgery and we want that to be at home with his own ortho doc.  So we are trying to arrange for a professional delivery captain to take the boat home for us and Tom has volunteered to come and get us and bring us home instead of renting a car. As you can see it has been a rough couple of days for Mat. He isn’t in any pain if he doesn’t try to move the leg. There’s no blood or black and blue. He is braced and has crutches which are far better than the boat hook he was using for a cane.  Everyone here has been more than helpful and we are very appreciative.

As far as the rest of the week prior to the accident, we were in final stages of leaving North Carolina heading for Virginia.  We put in a long day since we had many bridges to go through and the Virginia Cut lock. But we did have many tugs and barges that we had to work around; we even went aground once but backed out of it pretty easily. We passed all of the Navy vessels in Norfolk and had the airplanes of Langley Air Force Base zooming overhead. As we arrived late into Hampton, we had to find the slip on our own but a dock mate helped us with our lines. Boaters are very wonderful people! We have friends in Hampton, VA, Bob and Sally, and we spent a couple of days with them.  They took us to their yacht club for dinner one night and we went to their home another night. It was nice seeing them again.

We toured the History museum and the Aerospace Museum and both were worth it.  The aerospace museum is spectacular with everything interactive.  We stayed through Saturday as there were small craft warnings out and these old folks decided against braving the elements.  We are sure glad we did when we got a call from my cousin Brian and his wife Laurie who just happened to be passing through Hampton.  So we met them for lunch and caught up on all the family gossip and got to congratulate them on their new grandson.

Mother’s Day we spent at the ill-fated anchorage in Mill Creek Reedville, MD… It was once one of my favorite anchorages, but now, not so much.

So if you see us around town very soon, it’s not a mirage, it’s really us, a little worse for wear.  As our friend Ginger says, getting old is not for sissies!! We’ll get through all of this because, after all, we are not sissies!

Take care,

Pam & Mat

The Journey

Sunrise at the

Alligator River Bridge

Mat Ready at the

Great Bridge Lock

Navy Hospital Ship

Hampton Air and Space Museum

Pam Drops Anchor

Hampton VA

Space Capsule

Flying Tigers

Old Point Comfort

Lighthouse

Sunrise Reedville MD

Mill Creek

Just Keep on Movin’, Movin’, Movin’…

 

Just Ducky on the waterway in Little River, SC

If you are reading this, you have found our new blog.  Mat spent many hours putting this all together and I love what he did. He’s my favorite techie! Hope you enjoy it and give us comments so we can improve it or just bask in the afterglow of your compliments.

 

The last time we chatted, we were in Savannah, GA and now 16 days later, slowly but steadily Just Ducky is about to enter Virginia tomorrow.  Not bad for us slow pokes who have been held up more times than I want to count for stormy, windy weather. Everyone, either natives to the area or snow birds, have commented on how unsteady and out of character the weather has been for this time of year. North winds should have crossed over to gentle southerlies by now.

We did have the opportunity to visit Charleston, my personal favorite, on the way home.  We stayed outside of the city at one of the best marinas we have ever stayed in.  They were ½ hour outside of Charleston, but drove us into the city for the day.  St John’s Yacht Basin, if anyone is headed that way.  When you have been on the road (water) for as long as we have we appreciate all the things we take for granted at home, like clean, hot showers, shower stalls not erected for pigmies, availability of fresh fruit and veggies and the hopefully close-by liquor store. Not necessarily in that order. Again, I digress.  We toured Charleston in an open horse-drawn carriage and had the best southern vitals in the Low Country Café.

Since going out into the ocean was out of the question with sustained waves of 6-7 feet, we tackled the low water in McClellanville in the ICW. We used the high tide to go through, followed the magenta line and we were golden.  Actually, that’s the “we” that means Mat did the work and I watched.  We all have our strengths.

We stopped in Little River, SC to visit with friends we met in Marathon, Jane, Dave, Mary and Larry.  Jane and Dave had us overnight and it was the first real bed we have slept in since we were in Texas for Christmas.  And it was king size!! It poured rain while were there and it was fortunate that we had not planned on moving that day anyway. Dave took pictures of Just Ducky as we passed in front of their house; what a great location on the ICW they have.  Mary and Larry gave us use of their unoccupied slip at the marina. Thanks to all of our South Carolina friends.

We had planned to visit with our friend Mark in Wrightsville Beach, but he was in Kansas City as we arrived, so unfortunately it didn’t work out.

The last time we were in Morehead City, the tail-end of hurricane Tammy (’05) and 30-50-mile an hour winds kept us there rocking at the dock for a few days. I think we are the only folks that remember the effects of Tammy.  Having said that, we arrive in Morehead City and the next day the winds started howling and blowing like crazy.  Déjà Vous all over again!! One boat came in from the ocean with both his sails in tatters as well as a broken gooseneck that attaches the boom to the mast. We took down our bimini and awning just to be sure we wouldn’t have any canvas damage. We didn’t get a chance to leave Morehead City until late morning and had a rough ride up the Neuse River.  This is the part of the trip that requires passage through 4 large rivers or sounds with direct access from the Atlantic. So we had it rough on the Neuse, not too bad on the Pamlico, so-so on the Pungo and wonderful on the Albemarle. one out of 4 ain’t bad!

We have seen that the days start out nice and with little wind, so our strategy right now has been to leave very early, 6:30 or so, and be at our destination before the storms hit.  So far, it is working well except when we got to Belhaven and the skies opened up as soon as we wanted to dock at the marina.  The timing still needs some work… But, on the bright side, we did see a couple of rainbows.

Oddly enough the weather seems to be warming up as we move north.  I know it’s not logical, but it really is.  My layers of clothing are diminishing and that is a good sign.  I even had shorts on for a few hours yesterday. We are in Coinjock, NC which is the last stop for us in North Carolina.  They seem to be famous for their 32oz prime rib, but we are opting for the 16oz and will be sharing it.  I don’t think I want to even picture the person who can eat the 32oz by himself.

After passing through the lock in Great Bridge, we will be meeting up with some friends in Hampton, VA tomorrow and then will start our trip up the Chesapeake Bay, down the Delaware River, up the coast of New Jersey and through Manhattan that will lead us back to the Long Island Sound. It sounds like a lot, about 700 more miles, but we are up for it.  It’s truly been a great trip.

More to come…

 

Charleston is our kind of town!

Our tour ride in Charleston

Charleston home with balconies

facing the water for the breeze

Once a separate kitchen, now a private home

Brace added to buildings after the siding is cracked

by storms - sorry the carriage was moving

Storms a brewin' outside of Charleston

ICW water colored by the

tanic acid of the cyprus trees

Mary Kerr, Jane and Dave Gammons, Larry Kerr

Camp Lejeune - don't go by when they are firing!

Rain, Rain, go away...

Captain Mat in Morehead City

Cruise ship in the North Carolina cut -

Coinjock, NC

Rainbow at the Alligator River

Sunrise on the Alligator River

Sunrise in Broad Creek

 

Unwinding the Trip

Mat, Kathy, Pam and Paul

As  we travel north up the coast on our way home, we are stopping at some of the same places as we did on the way south, but some stops we are doing differently. We had a very long day getting past all of the bridges between Fort Lauderdale and Lake Worth.  Weather prevented us from going on the outside so we bit the bullet and slowly progressed up the ICW.  We stayed at a different anchorage this time and we were happy to see it as we pulled in at 6:45 pm. It definitely was not a night for a slow cooking gourmet meal!

It turns out that putting a new antenna on for the radio did not fix the problem and had to replace the radio itself when we got to Melbourne. I don’t want to jinx anything but now it works.  After anchoring in Fort Pierce for the night we arrived in Melbourne and had a great visit and lunch at Squid Lips with Uncle Paul and Aunt Kathy. They were kind enough to drive us to our favorite store, West Marine, to get the new radio.

Very good advice from a website called Active Captain and the praiseworthy magenta line on the GPS has kept us in the middle of the channel and out of trouble. There are times the magenta line will take you over land…we think they do that just to remind us not to follow blindly.

Being back in St. Augustine is always a pleasure.  We stayed at a mooring this time and they had launch service so these lazy people did not have to put the dingy in the water. Thunderstorms came through one night which was a bit worrisome and then tornado warnings, even more worrisome. But we did fine even if I did stay up most of the night praying the storm to go in another direction.  It worked!! Mass in the Cathedral, lunch in the Old Spanish Quarter and a historical presentation about the settling of St. Augustine rounded out the visit. Believe it or not we did not go back to the winery. See, we are doing things a bit differently.

I guess it was a sign of the times, but as we came through Cumberland Sound, the navy was broadcasting that they were taking large ships out to sea and all pleasure boaters were to step aside for their passage. We waited on the side of the waterway for a submarine to pass while navy boats with sailors bearing arms stood guard over us as it passed.  The process took many hours so we think another sub and other navy vessels went out too.  This was one day after the Boston bombings before they knew who was responsible.  Not sure if the events are related or if the North Korea issues came into play.

While we do have a few days traveling with other sailboats that go at about the same speed, we seem to be alone most days. We really do feel the traffic on the ICW is much less than we expected. The marine life is also much less even though we see dolphins a lot. I’m convinced that there are some environmental things going on and climate changes; whatever it is. However, the pelicans seem to be thriving.  They are EVERYWHERE!!

Everyone who knows me knows what my least favorite thing on the water is.  Is it rain?  thunderstorms? High winds? (Now that I think about it, those are not so great either… but I digress.) Fog is my biggest fear on the water.  While we have a lot of it in New England, the South doesn’t have much.  However, we did wake up to fog a couple of days.  Thankfully it was in the morning and wore off and didn’t come rolling in on us as we traveled.

We entered Georgia and our visit to St. Simons was great as we spent time with Cynnie and Ursie. We almost saw Ursie’s  granddaughter, almost. Maybe next time. We were able to avoid the dreaded Little Mud River by going out to the ocean and back in to anchor in Wahoo Creek. That made for a short next day as we traversed Hell Gate easily with the help of Active Captain. Whoever named these places needs to chill a bit and not be such an alarmist. I’m sure if Hell Gate was called something like Seagate, we’d all be a bit more relaxed about going through.

We are presently in Savannah for the 4^th time.  Three of the four times have been in bad weather, such as hurricane Wilma, hurricane Sandy and right now some front that is going through with near gale force winds. Again, Mother Nature takes over and we wait for the weather to pass. We had dinner with our friend Kathy Kahn; Mike has already migrated back to Vermont for the summer. Kathy’s welcome was great. The sandflies seem to be welcoming us too. 

We hope to move tomorrow but can’t be sure yet. Next stop beautiful downtown Beaufort, SC.  The tragedies in Texas and Boston and the passing of a dear friend make me appreciate the gifts we have.  One of the greatest gifts is the friendship of all of you. Stay well and stay tuned…

Melborne Sunset

 

 

Ft Pierce Sunrise

Low water on the ICW

Bridge of Lions

St Augustine

St Augustine Pirate Ship

The Tall Ship Harvey Gamage

Fernandina Beach, FL

Sunrise Fernandina Beach, FL

St Simons Island Rainbow

Sub on Cumberland Sound

We’re on Our Way home!

Pam and her pet Alligator

Although we were ready to take off sooner, we finally got the right wind conditions to go up the west coast of Florida on March 19^th. We didn’t let a few sprinkles deter us as we averaged over 7 knots (speedy for us) among the crab pots through Florida Bay up to Little Shark River to anchor for the night.  No sharks, but one alligator and lots and lots of bugs! Mat caught a few catfish until the bugs drove him inside the boat. We arrived at Fort Myers Beach just about the same time our friends Don and Lavon returned from their trip. So we headed over to their condo where they had a slip for us for our stay. They were really great hosts. Travel to and from the beach area is quite a challenge during high season as the roads can’t handle all of the traffic.  So we got to think like the Floridians and only go in that direction either early or late in the day.  The beach is beautiful with soft, white powdery sand. We took trips to the beach, Cape Coral for lunch and Sanibel Island where we toured the “Ding” Darling Nature Preserve and took part in a wonderful barbeque. Their condo association has all of the amenities such as pool, community room for parties and tennis. We took advantage of the pool and the surrounding seating areas in the evenings as we traded Happy Hour for Sundowners. There we go being flexible again!

With Fort Myers Beach being our northernmost destination on the west coast, we proceeded back into the Gulf of Mexico to start our journey back to Connecticut. It’s hard to believe we were actually in the Gulf. We stayed at Marco Island for a couple of nights and attended Easter Vigil services at the church there.  While our mass on Palm Sunday was over in less than 45 minutes, we did get our money’s worth on Easter with a record 2-1/4 hours. After leaving my purse in a taxi the night before and having it returned to me, we had a lot to be thankful for.

We went back through Florida Bay and found all of those crab pots we were told about. Some areas made our lobster pots in Long Island Sound look like nothing! Some skinny water was also part of the trip; you’d think we’d be use to it by now. Our depth sounder was reading 4.2 but we have a 5 foot depth. We expected to be aground but we weren't. Our only explanation is that it was reading from the top of the sea grass, not the bottom. Even though we have towboat US on speed dial, we were happy not to have to call them. We’ve had some pretty long days on the water before making it to Biscayne Bay.  We made it out of Miami Harbor slowly as there were many container ships coming our way.  They’re bigger; they win the right of way. We had a great day sailing, yes I did say sailing, up the coast to Fort Lauderdale, getting up to 9.4 knots. What a ride!

We are back at Bahia Mar Marina, home of the mega yachts and Just Ducky.  Johnny Depp’s yacht is also here but unfortunately he is not.  There was a boater’s appreciation party last night that was great;

stone crab, wild shrimp and oysters and an open bar. We feel truly appreciated!

 We put our down time waiting out some stormy weather to good use and had our VHF radio checked out as we have been told that our transmissions were low in volume.  Radio and connections are fine so it was the antenna that needed to be replaced. Climbing up the 59 foot mast was not something we wanted to do ourselves, so we called in the pros and now have a new antenna.

We plan to leave tomorrow for Lake Worth and all places North as we continue our journey home. We are feeling better about the shallow water to come now that we have our new GPS with better graphics but will probably have to use the tides in our favor to get through the rough spots and allow us to sleep better at night. We’ll stop to see some folks and sights along the way. Our ETA in Connecticut is somewhere mid to late May.  Hope the snow and cold weather will be gone by then. (That was supposed to be a joke).

 

 

Mat, Lavon & Don

Ft. Myers Beach

Street entertainer

Fort Myers Beach

 Lavon & Don

Trouble in the bag

"Ding" Darling Nature Preserve

Alive and well in the Everglades

You knew we HAD to go

Marko Island Parking Garage

Marco Island Sunrise

Popular eatery on Marco Island

Sunset In Hawks Channel

Florida Bay

Johnny Depp's Yacht

Ft Lauderdale