Heading stateside again for the summer

Wed 19th Apr 2023 - Left Emerald Bay Marina, finally heading north and homeward bound. The issue with our water maker (busted membrane) influenced our decision to return home earlier than planned. Muti has a 80 gallon water tank so it doesn’t take long for us to begin rationing water. The wind was out of the east resulting in a bumpy ride until traversing the cut from the Atlantic Ocean towards Galliot Cay, the rest of the day was smooth sailing on the protected west side of the islands.  We anchored at Black Point for the night. 

Thu 20th Apr 2023 - Continued north until Highbourne Cay; still mostly east wind so today was smooth sailing once again. Music to Gerda’s ears. 

Fri 21st Apr 2023 - Left Highbourne Cay early and caught a beautiful sunrise on the way to Nassau. Passed Nassau (and Sol Kerzner’s Atlantis resort in pic) and continued on to the Berry Islands. Arrived just outside Great Harbour marina in the Berries at about midnight and anchored just outside. As we have been to Great Harbor before and have a recorded track we felt assured we wouldn’t run aground in the dark. Normally we would stage offshore until day light before entering a new anchorage.

Sat 22nd Apr 2023 - More cruise ships pulled in overnight at the amusement park, seems they are our amusement. 🤣 We were going to spend a few days here before continuing our trip home but there was a good weather window to get to the US coast (and it was closing fast!), so we decided to head out. Smooth motoring most of the day,  we were even able to sit on our rooftop and keep ‘Stinky’ (Elon’s dish) company. Hopefully we can cross the Gulf Stream overnight. 

Sun 23rd Apr 2023 - Stateside! The crossover was mostly uneventful; the last 2 hours was a very bumpy ride as the wind and current switched to dead ahead, not predicted at all! Bashing into these conditions is no fun even if it does work the abdominal muscles. We anchored in Port St Lucie in FL with our boating friends Janice and John, waiting for the next weather window to open up so we can continue north. Anchoring with a busted water maker is challenging; we need to find a fresh water source. Fortunately John has a friend who lives on the ICW who graciously offered to provide water. Not having water hones one’s perspective of how much we take for granted.

Mon 24th Apr 2023 - Spent the day doing chores and cooking (had to use the last of the fresh produce we got in Georgetown!). Even though we are in the US, anchoring in this spot is not optimal as there is no shore access and Stinky acting up a lot limiting our online access. Janice and John invited us to their boat for a bite to eat, always great company and Janice’s great food (and we got to take some leftovers back to our boat!). When socializing with other cruisers weather is the dominant subject - what’s the forecast, what weather models are predicting, when’s the next weather window, blah, blah. Who knew we would become so intimate with the GFS(US) and ECMWF(European) weather models, wind and wave direction, Chris Parker (weather guy) and a myriad of weather apps. When we are non-cruisers (normal people?) weather discussion is whether it’s raining or sunny. 🫣 It started raining in the evening.

Tue 25th Apr 2023 - Woke up to cloudy conditions with occasional rain. Weather prediction for northbound travel today not looking good, hopefully better tomorrow. Thunderstorms in the late afternoon.

Wed 26th Apr 2023 - Northbound again, heading up to St Augustine. Initially the water was calm with very little wind so easy sailing/motoring. But just before Cape Canaveral a severe weather warning (including lightning and quarter sized hail) was issued on VHF radio. We put the hammer down to avoid it multiple times. We managed to escape it, but our friends Janice and John were caught in it and mentioned that they had 40 knot gusts! We all survived the ordeal and continued on our journey overnight.

Thu 27th Apr 2023 - We gained some ground (water?) overnight and in the morning we were about 5 hours from St Augustine. Severe thunderstorms were once again predicted for late afternoon so we pushed it to make sure to arrive before the bad weather arrived. By late afternoon we were safely secured on our mooring ball. It seems we will be here for at least a week. St Augustine is very quaint but also very touristy, we will definitely venture out to explore once sleep deprivation isn’t an obstacle.

Fri 28th Apr 2023 - Lot of rain overnight, cloudy this morning. Did some much needed laundry at the marina. Went in for a lunchtime burrito with Janice and John. Having stopped here multiple times doesn’t take away from the quaintness of this downtown. Spent the evening on the boat, definitely a weekend vibe coming from the shore (how many versions are there of Margaritaville?) and the small  boats buzzing around the mooring field. Rain predicted overnight again….

Sat 29th Apr 2023 - Still no rain, hard to make plans with no weather predictions actually materializing of late. Braved a bridge opening to get some fuel and water and took a long walk to the grocery store killing 2 birds with one stone: exercise and provisioning. St Augustine is in full weekend tourist mode: party boats, floatable bars and a loud canon going off every so often to ensure no one is able to dose off for a power nap (that’s my theory anyway). Some history on the oldest city in the US: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine,_Florida

Sun 30th Apr 2023 - Rained cats and dogs overnight, very windy today. Decided to continue up to Georgia starting sometime tonight, doing some last minute chores today. Happy to be leaving Florida, not our favorite state (from a boating perspective).

Mon 1st May 2023 - Left at about midnight to Brunswick GA, shorter sail than most passages but we have a small weather window and every little bit helps get us further north. The ride was a lot bumpier than anticipated but we made good time and got there in the early afternoon in very windy conditions. Janice and John made the trip with us on their Lagoon 450 and we all went for a very nice pub lunch at the Marina restaurant. Exhausted as always after a passage so early night. Wind still howling when we went to bed.

Tue 2nd May 2023 - Chilly this morning but warmed up later. The four of us decided to do a bike ride to get some groceries on St Simons Island, lovely outing on one of our  favorite stops on the east coast. Gerda always says she could live here if it wasn’t for the bugs in summer. And man, are there flying bugs.🤦‍♀️Wind picked up in the afternoon, barbecued for dinner on shore and had a pleasant (late!) evening with Janice and John on their boat.

Wed 3rd May 2023 - Went for a nice long walk on St Simons Island, stopped by a Starbucks for coffee and pastries. Beautiful morning though started off a little chilly. Quiet afternoon, prepping to leave tomorrow.

Thu 4th May 2023 - Left for Charleston this morning. Not much wind, motor sailed most of the way.

Fri 5th May 2023 - After a cool overnighter on the water (with full moon!) we arrived at Cooper River Marina in the morning. Exhausted so just spent the day resting.

Sat 6th May 2023 - Did some chores in the morning and then headed into town for lunch and some shopping, it was about a 6 mile walk. Interesting walk. First we walked through an industrial area followed by a very sketchy neighborhood to get to a state road that would take is all the way downtown. We stopped at a brewery (for a beer/ginger beer) with a Saturday flea market in full swing - what a pleasant surprise. Then stopped at a very busy outdoor Mexican restaurant for a taco salad lunch followed by walking the last few miles to a grocery store to pick up some provisions (or “padkos” as we say back home) for the remainder of our trip before we Ubered back to our condo on the water. Unexpected fun day! Maybe we’ll hold off on the walking tomorrow. 😁

Sun 7th May 2023 - Extended our stay in Charleston, expecting some bad weather for the rest of the week. Quiet day.

Mon 8th May 2023 - According to our weather guy Chris Parker, we can only leave on Fri. Glad we’re at the marina, water is very choppy around us and the boat is rocking all over the place. Hot afternoon with light rain early evening, the weather is coming….

Tue 9th May 2023 - Another hot day before the storm arrives. We cycled to the city, had a nice lunch on the way and bought some more groceries. The storm arrived at about 8pm, was fast and furious, and let’s just say we are very glad to be safely tied up in a marina. 🫣😵‍💫Never seen anything like this before, we clocked gusts of 54 kts! 

Wed 10th May 2023 - Calm after the storm this morning, much better! Though Muti is a little bruised from bumping up against a fixed heavy duty garbage can on the dock. 🫣☹️ She will need some fiberglass and gelcoat repair. Everything is wet in our cockpit area so appreciated the much needed sun later in the day. 

Thu 11th May 2023 - Tried to head  out today just after lunch but wind was too strong and Rob could not get Muti off the dock. Finally left at about 3:30pm but the waves were still huge getting out of Charleston harbor and a few hours heading north.  

Fri 12th May 2023 - Seas calmed down somewhat overnight, so less bumpy this morning. Another 24 hours to our destination! 👏🤦‍♀️

Sat 13th May 2023 - Overnight was much calmer than the night before. Uneventful; just how we like our passages. Though Rob would like to have a bit more wind so we can sail more rather than having to motor-sail. Gerda doesn’t mind so much cause the less wind there is the calmer the water is. And therefore the less potential for sea sickness. 🤷‍♀️We found a spot at the city docks in Beaufort NC which is a good staging area for us to make the final passage around Hatteras. Seems we may be stuck here for a while due to inclement weather. Again! (Sigh). 

Sun 14th May 2023 - Had some amazing (non-boat) coffee in a little coffee shop in the local town. Still reviewing weather before we decide when to do our final passage for the season up to Hampton VA. We will be out on the water for 35 hours so we need a good weather window to do that.

Mon 15th May 2023 - This morning we got conflicting points of view from our weather guru Chris Parker, as well as other sailors in the marina as to whether we should go/not go. Initially we decided to stay but the concern is that there is possibly no good window for up to 2 weeks, so decided (with some others) to go given the current window is ok but not perfect. Gerda put her seasick patch on and off we went! First part of journey up to Cape Lookout was good motor sailing, trying to gain some ground. Once we turned to corner of Cape Lookout shoal and headed north we bashed directly into the waves for most of the time, all the way up to Hatteras. Not very pleasant at all. The bashing noise is worst when you’re down in the hulls which, you know, is where the toilets are located. 😵‍💫 The wind direction was supposed to change but we did not see it. 🤷‍♀️ As it started getting darker a little bird joined us on our trip, flying alongside us for the longest time! Spot the birdie in the pic. 😁

Tue 16th May 2023 - After midnight the wind shifted direction and the seas eventually flattened out a little to where we were oscillating rather than bashing. Almost no wind though so we have to move ahead with both engines powered up to gain some ground. Just after noon we encountered a small monohull floating in the middle of nowhere. It’s looked to be in distress with its mainsail shredded and various items strewn on deck. Rob tried to hail them on the radio but there was no response. We couldn’t get close enough to see if there was any life onboard.  Rob finally called the Coastguard and provided them with our coordinates. They were already aware of the vessel and it was abandoned. Lucky we didn’t hit it at night! So, moving on…..continued to up the pace to get to our destination as soon as possible and we arrived at Salt Ponds Marina (our boat’s summer home 😁) with an hour to spare before the predicted thunder/lightning squalls were scheduled to arrive (and never did much to Rob’s annoyance).

Wed 17th May 2023 - That’s it for this season, folks! Will spend some time doing boat projects and also heading to Austin for a few months. Until next time! 👋

Peace out.