We're close enough to see our home state! FLORIDA!

Hurry and wait.  Lately that has been the deal.  We hurried to Beaufort, SC to get secure for the big weather that was going to hit the whole east coast.  Then we waited for it to pass and when a window came we hurried outside into the ocean again to make a run for the St Mary's River.  But, as of this moment, if we want to we can actually see a segment of the Sunshine State of Florida.  We are now far enough south where the waiting is nice!

But first, our run to Beaufort SC was nice and easy.  Going through Winyah Bay only involved getting out of the way of one big-A barge doing a hip-tow.  Oh yea, it was on a corner so we stayed "way" out of the way!

Look out!

Not the best pix but they are two mature Bald eagles

At Port Royal Landing Marina we decided to stay for two nights as the wind and rain made for difficult traveling.  Besides the temperature was near 40 degrees so we had electricity for the 110V heater!  Nati was very happy to stay dry and we were too.

We're not leaving the boat today!

On Sunday, mid morning Nati and s/v Kismet left the docks and headed out the Port Royal Sound and we did a really nice overnight to Cumberland Island.  With just head-sail (wind was very deep behind us) we made it to the sea buoy at the St. Mary's river at 6am.  The moon was 3/4 full for most of the trip and the seas, although fairly large just rolled right under Nati and we maxed out at 9.7kts at one point.  The trip was one of the most fun we've had in a long time!  The last 3 miles to the anchorage was against the current but the hook was down and it was time for a nap.

7+  foot tides here

 Cumberland Island - We think after being here for two days is a "magical place".……from: Wikipedia:

"The island has three major ecosystem regions. Along the western edge of the island there are large areas of salt marshes. One will also see gnarled live oak trees covered with Spanish moss and the palmetto plants at the edge of Cumberland's dense maritime forest. Cumberland Island's most famous ecosystem is its beach, which stretches over 17 miles (27 km). The island is home to many native interesting animals, as well as non-native species. There are White-tailed deer, squirrels, Raccoons, Nine-banded Armadillos, Wild Boars, American Alligators, as well as many marshland inhabitants. It is also famous for its feral horses roaming free on the island

In the 1880s Thomas M. Carnegie, brother of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and his wife Lucy 
bought land on Cumberland for a winter retreat. In 1884, they began building a mansion on the site of Dungeness, though Carnegie never lived to see its completion. Lucy and their nine children continued to live on the island, naming their mansion Dungeness after that of Greene. Dungeness was designed as a 59-room Scottish castle. They also built pools, a golf course, and 40 smaller buildings to house the 200 servants who worked at the mansion. The last time Dungeness was used was for the 1929 wedding of a Carnegie daughter. After the Crash and the Great Depression, the family left the island and kept the mansion vacant. It burned in a 1959 fire, believed to have been started by a poacher who had been shot in the leg by a caretaker weeks before. Today, the ruins of the mansion remain on the southern end of the island. The Carnegie family owned 90% of the island.

In 1954 some of the members of the Carnegie family invited the National Park Service to the island to assess its suitability as a National Seashore. In 1955 the National Park Service named Cumberland Island as one of the most significant natural areas in the United States and plans got underway to secure it.  They, along with others, also helped push a bill through the US Congress that established Cumberland Island as a national seashore. The bill was signed by President Richard Nixon on October 23, 1972. The Carnegie family sold the island to the federal government. With donations from the Mellon Foundation, Cumberland Island became a national park."

At the "ice house" museum

After our all day wandering on the island yesterday we have to say it is one of the most beautiful places we have been to.  Over the years we have stopped at both the north and south ends of the island but the late fall weather has always been cold and rainy.  It was a lovely day yesterday to hike the trails and visit.  To see the horses and trees in a natural state makes this place really special.  The Red Cedars, palms, spanish moss hanging on the live oaks made the long walk easy.  No bugs to harass us and the sun/breeze was perfect.  We'll let the pictures tell more of the story.

After tying Dingh-go up we step into this!

The wild horses of Cumberland Island

The "wild turkeys" of Cumberland Island

On our walk to Dungeness

The remains of Dungeness

Guess he isn't afraid of us!

The "Pergola"

We are guessing:  Mercury

Looking from the west over the main fountain

The salt marsh

The 17 mile long beach

Beautiful dunes

The "live oaks"

another one

Lastly another….

After our visit here we will continue down the ICW to Fernandina Beach and then down to St Augustine.  Both stops are nice and this year we have the time to enjoy our trip south through a portion of Florida.  

Going south…..one step at a time……

Going from Annapolis to Miami can be defined as one long trip or a lot of small steps and I think that is the way one can describe it best…….. "one step at a time".  Every day and night means something else as nothing stays the same, it is always changing.  If you don't acknowledge that you can really have a lousy time at running the east coast of the US.  I think we are realists, we enjoy our life each day and acknowledge there is work and fun.  We don't think we are on some sort of vacation.  We're retired so that means we don't have to work for the "man", but it doesn't mean we play each and every day.

Right now we are in Port Royal, SC and it feels like we are in the arctic.  Wind chill is 31 degrees, the wind is howling and the rain is blowing sideways.  What the heck??!!   Two days ago shorts and t-shirts were the norm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Go figure.

To back track after Bath, NC we did our 3 nights at Oriental, now one of our favorite stops.  On the way we stopped at RE Mayo's warf and picked up some shrimp.  And a great price!  How about $7.99/lb.  3 pounds for around $25 bucks!

The boy's and the girl's rooms at RE Mayo

R.E Mayo dockside

Mmm, mmm Good!

In Oriental we timed it to be there for the weekend and met a number of new folks on the docks.  It was the along with annual chili cook-off!  We tried around 13 different chills, our pick only came in second but I still have to give Anne the 1st prize as her chili (if we had ambition) would have won hands down!

Let the sampling begin

Where's our chile?

Chefs "Rigor & Mortis" with their entry

Shrimp boat work horses

From Oriental we went to see Reiner & Renate near New Bern.   We wanted to hang out for a couple of days and also to get our fix at "Spunky McDuggles", a small cool pub nearby.  The dock at their home is tight but Nati just fits in and she is perfectly safe from the elements.

Good Times

Nati's replacement

Go Reiner, Go!!!

From there we had a good window to make our first run out to Cape Lookout.  It is really pretty in the anchorage with dolphins and sea turtles.  The anchorage is deep but the holding is good so we had our chance to see the wildlife, including the wild horses.

The wild horses of Cape Lookout

We saw many of them

Cape Lookout light

Almost deserted beaches

The tides are a little high here

At the last second we thought we had a good window to make a run on the outside so we left in mid day and decided to see how far we could go before the weather shut down.  It was a great run.  We were able to go all the way to the Little River inlet, 155nm over the course of 1 1/2 days.  We found another great anchorage right at the mouth of the river and nobody goes there!  Don't tell a soul..…  Leaving the next morning for Osprey Marina turned out to be a little slower though as we fogged in right after raising the hook.  When the fog arrived we were right next to the red marker so we moved out of the channel and dropped anchor again.  No problem, just 2 hours of hanging out.

Our morning at Little River

things are looking rather interesting

at least we have the buoy to see

From Osprey we elected to run inside and make tracks as there was the big front coming that is in fact right on us at the moment.  But……we are tied to a dock and have the heater running.  It's a nice 70 degrees inside Nati!

Moving on down the line……

Overall the weather gods have been pretty good to us so far.  No or light winds when in the canals and at least some wind in the Sounds or rivers so we can either motor/sail or sail.  Also it has been warm for the time being.

On the way down the Pasquotank River we almost had a drive-by collision!  Yep, Dave and Perk would have liked this meeting.  Not the biggest buck in the world but he was looking at a 3-4 mile swim too!

Look out!

Yes, deer can swim good!

A blimp at the factory

A couple of days ago we decided to make a run up to Bath, NC.  We had heard some good things about the oldest town in NC and figured, why not?  After motoring down the Alligator-Pungo Canal the wind eventually came up and we were able to have a good sail to the Pamlico River and then had a slow DDW (dead-down-wind) sail up the river.  We made it late in the afternoon and are still here.  In reality there isn't a whole lot in town (1 pizza restaurant, the Country Kitchen, some historical markers and approximately 238 folks) but the people are friendly and we are anchored out if front of a little marina that sells $4 burgers.

Nati in Bath, NC

This is more like it!

This morning after a late night shower (cleaned off the Chesapeake salt spray) we woke up to a beautiful fall morning on the Pasquotank River at Goat Island.  It has been one of our favorite anchorages as the holding is good, there is room for many boats but is usually quiet.  Like last night we had the whole "place" to ourselves and we had a great birthday dinner (for guess who?) and a very nice evening.

Heading out of Annapolis at sunrise

Yes, we are moving south at the right time:

Temps this morning…..

•  Honeoye Falls - 42 degrees
• Sackets Harbor - 41
• Annapolis - 54

And right where we are……..66 degrees!!

Twilight in Deltaville

We have had a fairly good run so far and got to sail for 2 of the three days down the Chesapeake.  The last leg from Deltaville to Norfolk was a bust as the NW winds never even got above 5kts so it was a long motor against the current, ugh!  The sail from Solomons Island to Deltaville was great (top speed 9.2kts) and once the wind came up after we left Annapolis it was good sailing.

Full moon in Deltaville

The one thing we have noticed so far is that traffic has been very light on the waterway.  Skipping the boat show and heading to warm weather has made locking through and anchorage pretty empty.  Nice!

The trip through Norfolk is always cool.  The ships are impressive and one should stay on their toes to keep out of the way.

The "Harry S. Truman"

Size matters!

"Ike" the Dwight D. Eisenhower getting a remodel

We decided to do the Dismal Swamp again this year since the fall colors are working their way into the landscape and there are many less powerboat wakes to deal with.  The pace is slower, just the way we like it.

Deep Creek lock

..and corresponding lift bridge, thanks Robert!

We are back in the water after our "fall" cleaning at Pleasure Cove Marina

September has been a very busy month for the crew of Nati.  There have been 3 trips north (two by Anne alone) and lots of cleaning/PMI on Nati.  We were out of the water for 13 days and Nati is about as clean as she has ever been.

Pacifica Gray this year

and new bottom paint

Anne put 4 coats of polish on the hulls (1 3M compound, 1 3M Finesse-it, 1coat of Nu-Finish and wrapped it up with a hand applied finishing layer of 3M Ultra paste wax.  This didn't include the deck cleaning along with the stainless cleaning.

Nati has 2 new coats of Blue Water bottom paint (3 at the waterline) and the sail drives have 3 coats of Pacifica Plus.  We think she is ready for another winter down south.

Nati coming off the hard and heading for water

In she goes looking great!

We had a surprise visit from our friends Felix & Margarit while on the hard.  They have sold their trimaran and are now in the "camping & fishing" mode.  Tenting???  Oh Felix, you are very brave!

These guys have the "toys"!

NOTE:  We started this post a few weeks ago and then we had to send in the camera for repairs and just received a  brand new one from Nikon on Thursday.  Sooo………. that means we've had no pictures for a while.

Update…..we have been in Spa Creek for a week now and have finished up most of what needs to be done.  At this juncture we will be heading in the direction of south tomorrow after we hear about Amy's pie contest at Evan's school fall festival.  Nati is ready, we are ready and it is cooling down……we are outta here!

Let's Play………..see if Nati can fit them all!

Its very strange but it seems like summer is almost behind us and it is only another 2 days before Nati comes out of the water for her annual PMI.  All the tools for the haul out are in the "garage", (also known as the trunk of the rental car).  All we have to do is work our faces off for 10 days and she will look like new.  Before that work we did have a "party" weekend on Nati.

Bob, Steph and Teagan came down to Pleasure Cove for the Labor Day weekend and we had a good ole time with them and Amy & Evan.  The two cousins got a chance to play together for a weekend and it's amazing how good they are with each other.  It is definitely one of the highlights of the summer…..just sitting and watching them play together.

"T" and the moose

The two "fish"

Nice glasses E

Another shot of a bathing beauty!

"Evan, wake up….time for dinner"

The gang

Another leap for mankind!

Since it was since and warm all weekend there was plenty of "pool" time to be had.  Amy reported that Evan didn't even make it out of the marina grounds before he was sleeping yesterday and Teagan made it to York, PA.  Two tired out kids for sure!

As a comparison of one year……check out these tow pictures.

2013

2014