Just Ducky

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…