In The Keys for Mid-Winter

Pictures: Heidi at the hair salon in Key Biscayne; panorama of Boca Chita harbor, our boat on the left; community band concert in Key Largo park; Ken's new slogan, from Florida Keys Brewing; new boating friends (from Rhode Island) we met in the Islamorada anchorage; two fishing guides waiting for the results of the Swamp Guides' Tournament and Banquet at Lorelai -- they are last year's winners; our weekend visitor Ray putting his kayaks back on his van at the Lorelai parking lot; part of the crew watching the Superbowl on Feb. 5, including Ray and Linn; the resort in Islamarada that is featured on "Bloodlines" on Netflix; VICTORIOUS at Lorelai docks; one of the turtles at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon (they are all named); pool and tour group at the Turtle Hospital; Ken, Roy and Bertha on our dinghy going out to see our boat in Marathon; bubble-blowers at Bahia Honda putting on a great show, and really just enjoying it for themselves; one of the many sunsets, this one under the old railroad bridge at Bahia Honda; the side-creek view from the kayak in Little Shark River; the dock at high tide at the Rod & Gun Club in Everglades City; panorama of Little Shark River at our anchorage; our Valentine's Day grand-daughter Sienna

There are a few more days in Biscayne Bay to spend before we leave for the Florida Keys.  Day one, we are back at No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne. Heidi got a haircut; all the stylists spoke Spanish, but English as well. We are meeting a few other boaters just to talk with for 20 minutes or so. Everyone seems to be heading in different directions. There is a couple from Salem, Mass. that we have talked with before, in Vero Beach, and a couple who used to live in Cohasset, before we did, but we have some acquaintances in common. Another sailor is in the area, from Marblehead. We missed him this week, but caught up with him a few weeks later. On day two we move back to a mooring at Dinner Key in Miami so that we can get groceries more easily before we cruise to the Keys. We also got our bikes ashore to do some riding on the bike trail there and another trip to the hardware store. The Sail World Cup Miami has started and the harbor is full of the small sailboat and sailboard classes that are competing this week, from all over the world. One two-person boat heading back at a fast clip after it's race passes our dinghy and the captain smiles as he is so close that he has to raise his tiller up to miss knocking us out of our boat!
We'll miss the finals of the World Cup but we head for Boca Chita, still in Biscayne Bay and part of the Biscayne Bay National Park. This island has no causeway or bridge so all visitors come by boat. We tied up to a concrete seawall there and chatted with the owners of a few of the boats that arrived before us. There is a beautiful beach here, a replica lighthouse, and not much else. We're not sure if we want to stay one or two nights, but the next morning when we see that some critter (a rat?) has chewed through our cockpit door screen and helped itself to some of our small snacks we left out in baggies (and it left droppings all over) we are sure we will be leaving. Thank goodness it does not appear that it stayed on the boat and hid.
Our first Florida Keys destination was Key Largo. We are taking the bayside route which is on the north side of the Keys, as the Keys run roughly east to west. This stop is primarily for shopping, as we have access to a KMart, a Publix (groceries), a fresh vegetable market and a flea market. We had a great lunch out at The Conch House. The we hit it just right to sit and listen to an early evening community band concert held at the park closest to our anchorage. We had fairly cold weather, 58 degrees one morning when we got up. We also got time here to just stay aboard and read the Sunday paper, talk to our family members on the phone, and "Tango" (a video phone call) with our new granddaughter Sienna. A partial day of rain here was the only rain we've had in a while and it won't rain again until the end of this blog.
Our next major stop is Islamorada. Traveling in the Bay, the water is  6-8 ft. deep maximum; however we only need 3 1/2 ft. so we are good. We broke up the trip to Islamorada by stopping in a small bay off of Windley Key. Sometime in the night our anchor dragged, and we learned that our danforth anchor is not good in grassy bottoms. We were far enough from other boats in the bay to not have hit anyone, but from now on we will have to be more choosy about our anchoring spots. The next night we used our bigger danforth anchor and picked a sheltered corner of the north side of Islamorada. It was windy but we were secure. This area is great for sunsets--the last two nights have been especially beautiful! We were in this anchorage for 4 nights; it is about a mile to dinghy to shore but we like the peacefulness and safety. Heidi used the kayak along the shore quite a bit; another boat near to us, from Rhode Island, is also kayaking and dinghying to shore and we eventually had a drink with them and discussed boating subjects we have in common.
For two nights we are going to treat ourselves and stay at the dock near to the Lorelai Restaurant in Islamorada. We have been to Lorelai almost every day, for happy hour or for lunch. Now we are positioning ourselves to be close to a TV for the SuperBowl and in a convenient place when our friends Linn and Ray drive down to visit for the weekend. (Linn and Ray have a boat in Indiantown Florida, where we met them; they live most of the year in Rhode Island and we have visited them there. We have never actually boated with them because, so far, each time we see them we haven't had our boat, or they are working on their boat.) The weekend is lots of fun! We ended up eating all our meals at Lorelai or other restaurants in Islamorada, we walked,  took bike rides and kayak trips, and we watched the best SuperBowl ever!! We don't have a TV so we picked a bar and randomly our companions watching the game were a young couple on vacation from the Canadian army and a Swiss mother of 3 children on a getaway vacation. Linn and Ray were great guests, partially living out of their van which resulted in our not bumping into them too much on VICTORIOUS, and we all seemed to enjoy the same activities.
Highlights of Islamorada not yet mentioned: they are filming a Netflix TV series that we have watched,  Bloodline, and we enjoy the stories of the actors and locations that we hear; there are two beer breweries--Islamorada Beer Co and Florida Keys Brewing--and we sip tastings at both; a young waitress who has served us several times is just down from Maine where she served as innkeeper, at Squire Tarbox, from last summer until Christmas.
Our next major destination is Marathon, further west, but we stopped to check out Lignumvitae Key first. It is a Botanical State Park, can only be visited by boat, and has two rangers. It's not one of their scheduled tour days but one ranger unlocked the main house and informally showed us around. There is a guest mooring that looks a bit worn but we use it overnight and it is good. From there it is 35 miles to Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. The City Marina has 225 moorings there but the most recent 50 boats have had to anchor and go on the waiting list. They aren't even going to put us on the waiting list, as we would be so far down on the list and only plan to stay for a week.  We got a phone call while we were looking for a good spot to anchor in and it was friends from Massachusetts who were having lunch at a waterside restaurant and saw us enter the harbor. We met with them briefly and will see them later in the week; they are staying 25 miles away, toward Key West.
Our stay in Marathon extended to 10 days and included finding our Marblehead friend that we had missed in Miami and checking out his sailboat that was designed and built by the same people that designed and built our boat, along with sunset cocktails several times at Honchy Conch, and lots of kayaking for Heidi in the mangrove trails near to our anchorage. We had other happy hours, and lunches, one picnic on the beach and a "drift" in our dinghy with our beach umbrella for shade and beers for refreshment (it was Valentaines Day!). We spent one morning cleaning the bottom of our dinghy of grass and barnacles, another morning we hired a diver to replace zincs on the bottom of VICTORIOUS and also clean the bottom. We got groceries, borrowing the Marblehead friend's car, and got our mail forwarded by Pete and Eri. Heidi went to the Turtle Hospital and learned about how the 49  sea turtles in residence were injured or sickened and how they are being treated. The most recent turtle brought is weighs over 300 lbs.! Most will be released when they are better.
Roy and Bertha, who saw us on the first day in Marathon, drove back and visited with us,  lunched with us at Porky's, toured our boat and helped us run an errand. This was our last day before leaving for Bahia Honda Key. The weather during the 10 days was very hot. There are no bugs though, and there has been no rain. At Bahia Honda we can anchor close to shore between an old railroad bridge and a new(er) highway causeway. It is close enough to swim ashore. The key  has a camp store (this is another state park) with a luncheonette, clothing and souveniers. There are two nice beaches on this end of the key. On Saturday night, a ranger led a dark-sky walk to view the stars -- following a trail that goes up on the top of the old railroad trestle! Another treat is a sunset bubble-show put on by three adults in a small outboard, circling around the four boats that are anchored off of the beach. We very much enjoyed our visit to Bahia Honda.
From here we are leaving the Florida Keys after 3 1/2 weeks and heading to the western part of Everglades National Park. No towns or settlements are in that area, just fishermen, cruising boats and some canoeists and kayakers who travel on a backcountry wilderness paddling trail (a 10-day route before you come out in the south of the park). We came here one other time, 5 years ago, and enjoyed it although it can get very buggy. Once again this time we are able to watch sea turtles (loggerheads) swimming and feeding, along with birds, fish and dolphins. Our anchorage in Little Shark River is 5 miles inland from the open ocean. The river is fairly wide, no other boats are in sight. There is also an oportunity to kayak from our boat and sneak down into some side-creeks, as far as the mosquitos will let you!
In the ocean approach Ken found a school of tarpon, maybe 15 or so, that seemed to be cavorting as they swam, with tail-flips every once and a while, weaving in and out of each other, maybe feeding but not afraid of us as we got closer and closer. In one of the side creeks of the Little Shark Heidi found a single tarpon, maybe snoozing on the surface, that was startled (so was I!) and sudddenly twisted around and swam off. Small numbers of osprey, herons, hawks, and vultures also were seen.
Just yesterday we were in Everglades City at the Rod and Gun Club dock for a night. Back to civilization but this town is like an outpost, southernmost on the Florida westcoast mainland, and wild-west-like, in a Florida sort of way. Lunch at the Club was slow and gracious, and they don't take credit cards. Moms were picking their kids up at the end of the school day in golf carts. Lots of crab boats dock here and line the riverside. The former 1920s bank building is a B&B. We met up with Heidi's friend Alicia, who is the one that sent us here 5 years ago but our boat broke down then and we never made it. Alicia is camping at Big Cypress Preserve and drove over for breakfast and a walk around town in the rain. We plan to spend two or three more weeks on the Florida west coast before we cross the state by canal to get back to the east, and then head north.

At "Kayaking Disneyland" and Then on to Miami

Pictures: This is the Intracoastal Waterway near Hobe Sound, as our friend's neighbor caught a good shot of us passing by their condos; VICTORIOUS is in the mooring area near the Las Olas Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale; Ken is checking out a very low-rider outside of one of the tatoo parlors near the beach in Ft. Lauderdale; a new cruising friend, Louise, and I found these comfortable tables at the Florida International Univ. campus near our anchorage; another new friend took a picture of Heidi while kayaking in the Oleta River State Park; this group of happy kayakers makes it look like so much fun!; a typical line of kayakers as they explore the waters at Oleta River S.P; approaching Miami from the north on the ICW; in No Name Harbor after sunset, the boats are lit by their masthead anchor lights; this is how the sailors at the regatta move their boats from the launching area to the overnight area; here are Brazilian sailors and their 49er FX class boat passing us in the mooring area

This month we don't have a schedule and can revisit some favorite places, get lazy and stay in one place for a week if the mood (doesn't) move us, and we are enjoying the better temperatures mostly, comfortable for sleeping at night and not overly hot during the day. We've got DVDs to watch, quite a few books to read, and something new to us, podcasts to listen to. There is no TV on our boat and it is a relief in a way to get away from bad news, repetitive commercials, and somewhat unintelligent programming. We are also in the area of Cuban-American food, music and sexy lit-up speed boats! Every once and a while there is work to do, like changing engine oil, emptying the composting toilet, or cleaning the waterline of the boat, but we can space these chores out.
We only had a brief stopover in Ft. Lauderdale. A familiar boat was there, ELAN from Hull, Mass. We've been talking with Steve and Lynn off-and-on all trip and wondering when we would meet up. Here we had a chance to invite them to see our boat and they returned the favor. From the City Marina at Las Olas the area we could walk to was somewhat sleazy with tatoo parlors, the beach, and lots of liquor stores and bars. In the other direction we walked to a grocery store and got an Uber ride back as it was quite a distance. It is a busy boating place, and right now there are extra cruising boats accumulating, waiting for a good weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. The trip passes through the Gulf Stream (a strong current going from south to north just a few miles from the Florida coast) and this makes it a tricky passage, as you want to be sure to get the best weather.  We don't plan to go to the Bahamas but we are getting caught up in the discussions and the excitement!
The next stop is a return to Oleta River State Park where we first went 5 years ago when we came south in our Mainship powerboat. There is a bay adjacent to the Park, room for 2 dozen or so boats to anchor. It is well protected from the wind and happens to be bugless on this visit. Best of all the bay dead-ends nearby so there are no wakes from fast boats. There is also a uniersity campus across the bay; all this is in North Miami. The Park rents kayaks and also has a lot of mountain-biking trails and rents bikes. Every day dozens of kayakers paddle through our anchorage, mostly young people in their teens and twenties, but also families. They are almost all having a great time, splashing each other, racing, yelling back and forth. Our kayak got a lot of use here, as Heidi went on daily trips from one end of the bay to the other, and through the mangroves on narrow, bending routes.
We immediately met up with people from four sailboats who have recently connected with each other and are all waiting to cross to the Bahamas. Each day there was either a large group cocktail party on one boat or another, or smaller groups getting together for a hike in the park, to play board games, or to exchange books (this activity was initiated by the couple on WHISPER from Newfoundland). The other couples were from Maryland, Maine and a single-hander from Ohio.
One early evening gathering we were treated to a line of kayaks paddling by, lit with lightsticks on each bow and stern. It was the special "Full Moon Tour" for people who signed up at the rental center. This place is like a Kayakers Disneyland!
While taking a walk in the Park we saw a fox. It actually was waiting near the dinghy beach and most likely had spied our small plastic garbage bag we were bringing in to dispose of. It came quite near to us, but we headed in the other direction and waved it away. Other than the fox, wildlife was scant. Not too many birds other than herons, no manatees or dolphins. Good-sized orange iguanas are often seen hanging from the mangroves over the water. The weather has been a bit unstable, with clouds and passing showers, sometimes two or three times a day. But it hasn't really stopped the activity.
There are no services (water, laundry, etc.) here so the other four boats and ours had to eventually leave. Most of the group crossed to the Bahamas on the 18th of January. We moved down to Miami, to Key Biscayne which is across Biscayne Bay from the city center. We really enjoy No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. We have anchored here on each of the three trips we have made to Florida. There is a restaurant in the small harbor, and another State Park with good bicycle trails. The ocean beach is just a few minutes on the bicycle trail. We only stayed for two days this time because we still need water, but it was long enough to meet boaters from Fairhaven, Mass. and get together with them to compare notes. We rode bikes to get groceries here and had lunch each day at the two restaurants in the Park and Harbor, featuring seafood and our first Presidente (from Dominican Republic) beers of the trip!
Finally getting to the first "real marina" in quite a while, we got water at Dinner Key in Coconut Grove, part of Miami. While at the dock we were almost sideswiped by two girls on a small boat, sailing by fast with a spinnaker up, downwind, in the inner harbor. They were followed by two more female crews on similar boats. They all had insignia on their sails indicating where they were from -- Norway was the first boat. It turned out that a lot of sailors are in town for a "Sailing World Cup" that starts this week. It is so much fun watching the different classes (all are Olympic classes) sail out of the harbor with their coaches for training runs each day. We also pass through their staging area by the launching ramp and see the sailors all over town, at the grocery store nearby, and at the pre-launch area assigned to them.
We need to move from Dinner Key where we have a mooring to a quieter spot as a big wind is coming that will make it uncomfortable for a few days. But we did have three nights and days there, and had time to get a gourmet pizza lunch, go to the beautiful Barnacle park nearby (it is a former home of a boat designer from the late 1800s and also has a boathouse and carriage house), ride our bikes around to hardware stores and gelato shops, and get our laundry done at the marina headquarters.
The wind is hitting us now, but we are back at Key Biscayne. This time we went to Hurricane Harbor, a very safe anchorage, where we have no access to shore, but we can ride out the high wind gusts and relax. The homes here are beautiful, many have private docks, and there are another 8 or 9 boats anchored with us. It's 76 degrees out, sunny, and even though they are threatening thunderstorms, and even possible hail and tornados, it doesn't seem likely!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and into the New Year

Pictures: Our adorable granddaughter Sienna in Braintree (Peter and Eri's daughter); Ken cooking breakfast; the impromptu instrumental group after Thanksgiving dinner; our new composting toilet (before installation); sharing a mooring with two others (including our Hull friends) in Vero Beach; Christmas lights in Stuart; stopping to talk with a kayaker who is on vacation from South Dakota, a serious fisherman; Kenny on the beach in Vero Beach; Sally, our Christmas hostess-with-the-mostest; Kenny in a pint-sized Santa suit examining his new toy; Justin and his friend James (from Justin's Army days) who drove over from Sebastian to join us at one of the breweries; the Vero Beach Botanic Garden lily pond with decorations as Kenny sleeps; the pool with Jamie and Tammy; the whole family posed at the marina in Vero Beach; lunch with Tammy and Mike at Riverside Cafe, near the marina; on the beach with Justin Kenny and Ken

The last month and more of holidays has been a lot of fun for us. It has also been uncomfortably hot and humid. We would have thought that December weather would be a bit more moderate.
Six weeks ago we visited another Victory Tug owner-couple in the Cocoa Beach area, the Mackies. They have their boat right at their house on a private dock on Merritt Island. We had lunch in Cocoa with them and they ran us to CVS for supplies. The night following we anchored in Eau Gallie, a small harbor very similar to Cohasset, our home harbor. It is a beautiful stop, we've been here before, but just at dusk a woman from shore yelled out to us and we couldn't make out what she was saying. The setting sun was in our eyes so we couldn't see her at all. So we waved back. Then a few moments later she yelled louder and we could make it out this time -- "You friggin' freeloaders!"  We have heard about the friction between shoreline homeowners in Florida and boaters; and there are some towns with restrictions on anchoring, but so far this is the only case of our being yelled at. Maybe she was just a little loose from cocktail hour! Later someone shined bright lights on our boat for a while.
This part of the ICW is called the Indian River, and it goes for quite a way north and south. Everything to our east is Atlantic Ocean barrier beach. We reached Vero Beach and the nice City Marina there on the eve of Thanksgiving. In VB the barrier beach has residential houses and some small hotels directly on the oceanside. There are also shops, restaurants and many banks. A free shuttle runs from the marina to the beach and also over to the mainland.
We shared a mooring with WINDEMERE, our friends from Hull, Mass. who got to Vero Beach a few days before us. It was our turn to invite the Mahoneys to breakfast on our boat. Ken cooks a mean fried egg and bacon combo! Thanksgiving dinner here is all arranged by a group of former boaters who live in the area. We brought an apple pie and the WINDEMERE crew made stuffed mushroom caps to contribute. The dinner had about 120 people with seats for everyone in a community building near the marina. Afterward there was music on an adjacent patio provided by cruisers from SALTY PAWS and some of their friends.
WINDEMERE left the next day, hoping for a weather window to get them to the Bahamas on the weekend. We stayed to do laundry and go grocery shopping on the shuttle bus. The coincidences that happen on the ICW route are great: on the bus we met the couple from Canada who we pulled off of a shoal back in Georgia! We didn't know them by sight but found out who they were when they mentioned going aground several times in Georgia and we asked what the name of their boat was.
We plan to return to Vero Beach at Christmas when some family members are visiting. For now we have 3 1/2 weeks to kill, and will spend the time in the vicinity of the St. Lucie Inlet and the city of Stuart, about 45 miles south. We visited Kevin and Chris Buckley at their marina which is in the Rio section of Stuart. The marina is not open for business, but we can stay for a week or so--no cost--as the owners are marketing the property for development. The Buckley's boat APRES SKI pays a monthly fee and there are just 4 other boats there. We also spent a week at the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, on a mooring. From both locations we can bikeride, shop, go to Farmer's Markets, socialize. The Buckleys loaned us their truck for errands, and Sunset Bay has a shuttle bus to get boaters to popular shopping sites.
We found a posting on a bulletin board for a composting toilet. We really would like to have one on VICTORIOUS. On our last boat we had converted to this method. So we answered the ad, and ended up buying the toilet, ordering a few parts that it was missing, and installing it during the third week of our "wait time", when we were back at the marina in Rio. Thanks to Kevin and Chris Buckley for help with the logistics, as it was a fairly big project. Ken needed to cut out the platform for the existing toilet, cut out the hoses, remove the toilet, add a vent for the new one, and a lower platform for the new one. Now we are not dependent on getting a pumpout to stay legal, and the waste does compost in peat moss or coconut coir.
We usually follow a guide for anchoring that helps us pick a safe spot, but we did go rogue for two nights in Hobe Sound, where there were no sanctioned anchorages near to town, and found a great spot off of the Jupiter Island Club. Heidi kayaked around the area and found a town dock on the opposite (Hobe Sound) side and we were able to take the dinghy in there and tie up for an afternoon of lunch and shopping. We've driven to Hobe Sound several times in other years and it is a favorite of ours.
On December 23 we went north to Vero Beach so that we could greet Justin, Jamie and Kenny when they arrive on December 24. They will stay in a studio apartment on the beach, about an 8 minutes bikeride from the City Marina. Tammy and Mike are flying in on the 24th also, staying with Mike's mom for the first few days of vacation, then with us on the boat. On Christmas Day we are invited to Mike's mom's house, near Orlando, for a large group (23 people) Christmas dinner.
All went well with our Christmas week. The airlines  delivered everyone safely, our Christmas dinner was wonderful, including a yankee swap and cocktail hour. Our Christmas presents to our children and grandchildren are homemade ones this year, including canvas bags made from weather cloths we didn't need on VICTORIOUS and an activity board with hinges and other boat parts for Kenny to move around, opening and closing, etc.  We had fun with Kenny, who is now almost 15 months old, and just walking. We went to two local breweries each a few times, and local cafes and restaurants interspersed with meals on our boat and at the beach. Mike's mom and stepdad came for a boat ride one day. Tammy likes to play games and we got to do that several times. Jamie found a great citrus seller that also had THE BEST orange flavored soft-serve ice cream and floats. We all enjoyed the pool, hot tub and beach at the apartment. Justin chauferred us in his rental car several times including a trip to the botanical garden for the ladies (and Kenny) and he also got in a bike ride with Jamie on our folding bikes. The kayak and dinghy got used, too.  We were very busy and very happy.
At the end of the week we were able to connect with Pete, Eri and Sienna by the new app "Tango". Sienna is almost 4 months old now and darling! Tammy and Mike got a shuttle back to the Orlando airport and Justin's family drove back to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Unfortunately Justin's flight was cancelled as the last minute, but more fortunately they got on another airline's evening flight, so all-in-all they made it home OK even though it was 5 hours later than they had planned.
We had VICTORIOUS at the dock for the week between Christmas and New Years Day which made it more convenient with all the goings and comings. We stayed in Vero Beach on a mooring for another 2 days to get laundry done, go grocery shopping, and to get one more oder of the soft-serve orange icecream! We felt a little lost without all the visitors. On New Years Day we caught the entertainment at our favorite oceanside bar and watched the Patriots play the Dolphins.  We are getting gradually back to our more quiet life.
On our way south once again, early 2017 activities have been to revisit the Buckleys in Rio, have lunch with former Cohasset residents/friends who moved down to Port Salerno (also in the Stuart area), the Olneys, and to anchor off of a nice small beach in the Hobe Sound area of the ICW next to our October-November traveling friends, the Colemans, who we just randomly came across there. We'll be heading for Miami next week, and then the Keys, with no specific schedule. As this is written we are getting a tropical dounpour in Ft. Lauderdale. The last few weeks have brought these showers more and more frequently.
Happy New Year to All! (Lets make America nice again in 2017.)

Making it to Florida in Seven Weeks

Pictures: The two sailing couples and dog that brought us Treats on Halloween!; Tom and Beth Coleman on their boat QUIESCENT; an interesting poster in the window of a shop in Georgetown, SC; information about storm surge conditions to look for in Wrightsville Beach NC; a mini loaning-library in a small park in Beaufort SC; a farmer and his grandson at the Farmer'sMarket, St. Simons Island; our pizza party at the end of the free wine party, Brunswick Landing Marina (all the cruisers in the picture are from Massachusetts); Peter Mahoney maneuvers his boat WINDEMERE with ease in Georgia waters; a wild horse that swam across from a marsh to a beach as the tide came in, Cumberland Island GA; John Mackie and Ken in front of the Mackie's Victory Tug in Merritt Island, FL.

At this part of our trip we are covering a lot of ground. We'd like to get to warm temperatures fairly fast, and we've got a few unofficial deadlines. One of the dates we'd like to honor is Thanksgiving. We can join a group celebration and meal in St. Mary's GA or Vero Beach FL. Cruisers plan these group events and, in St. Mary's, the town pitches in with the turkeys and site for the dinner.
We left the Potomac River back on October 24th, and since then we have been in 4 more states. Crossing the state line into North Carolina happened on October 26. We had rejoined Tom and Beth on QUIESCENT that morning,  and became one of a group of boats in the lock at the start of the Virginia Cut Route through southeast Virginia and northeast NC. Ahead of us in the lock was a boat from New Zealand! After a quick chat we found out that they are finishing a 2 1/2 year cruise and delivering their boat to Florida to new owners. There is a "famous" restaurant on this route, the Coinjock Restaurant (named after the town it is in) and we had a good meal the night we stayed in the marina there. (We have always gone to NC via the Dismal Swamp Canal and so have never been to Coinjock. This year the Swamp route is closed due to damage from the hurricane a few weeks ago. Continuing all the way south we will be seeing damage from this storm.)
We have passed the Mayo shrimp dock other years, wondering if we should have stopped and bought fresh shrimp. This year we did pull over -- it's right on the waterway -- and we got 4 bags of giant shrimp, freshly caught and packaged. That night we made our own cocktail sauce and served the shrimp with lemon, and had a fresh carrot, a giant one from a farmer's market in Oriental, NC, as a side dish.
On Halloween afternoon, we were in Wrightsville Beach NC at a popular anchorage. A familiar boat was anchored nearby -- TAMURE. We have seen Kitty and Scott numerous times since we met them 8 years ago. They are based in Connecticut but we have seen them boating from Maine to the Bahamas. We got together with them for cocktail hour and then heard a knock on our hull, which turned out to be a dinghy of costumed adults, and one dog, who were going boat-to-boat treating with candy and samples of a delicious cider and bourbon drinks! It was one of those fun surprises that make cruising so pleasant!
Sometimes our route is mostly bordered by marshland and creeks, and the wildlife in these areas can be richer. We have seen an occasional immature eagle, one day a coyote pouncing on a plastic bag, playing with it. and tundra swans amid the more common birds. By November 2 we have entered South Carolina; QUIESCENT is traveling with us. In a quiet anchorage on the Wacamaw River we watched three types of woodpeckers, including a pileated woodpecker and a flicker all on the same tree bothering each other, while we had breakfast in the cockpit. A day later while anchored in a small creek, upper South Edisto,  at the end of the day, Heidi startled an alligator while kayaking. The alligator was sunning in some marsh grass and not visible from the low vantage point of the kayak. Luckily the kayak was not going fast and the alligator took off in the opposite direction. Up to this point we had not seen any alligators so one was not expected. Grassy banks will be treated with respect from now on!
The weather has been amazing, warm and sunny each day with no rain for the past 4 weeks, probably not since one drizzly afternoon in Connecticut or New Jersey. We spent 3 days in Beaufort SC, a very nice medium-sized town where lots of cruisers stop and where we have visited a few times. Our first experience this time was finding that the place we picked out for lunch was offering free food if we were ordering drinks from the bar! How friendly is that!?!
In Georgia, which we reached on November 9, we stopped at Kilkenny Creek and had a nice upscale dinner at the only place in town, "Marker 107". We needed to cheer ourselves up after the results of the presidential election...... QUIESCENT has "left us in their wake", having to speed up to deliver Beth to an airport in Florida to go home for a while. In one isolated stretch of the ICW in Georgia we took the line of a grounded-out sailboat from Toronto and tugged them into deeper water. We also came across two small islands that day that had no houses or other buildings (we hadn't seen any houses anywhere for miles) but that had multi-colored goats on the first island, and black (angus?) cows on the second. It would be nice to find out the story about these islands.
Our mail for the past 5 weeks was forwarded to St. Simons Island and we picked it up there. It wasn't in yet on the first try, a bike ride from Ft. Frederica, a National Monument on the island, but it was a nice 8-mile ride, all bike paths. We moved to nearby Brunswick and backtracked the next day to get it. In Brunswick we stayed at Brunswick Landing Marina, a special place that offers free washer and dryer use to patrons, AND free beer on tap every day PLUS three free wine parties a week. We got to one wine party and it was very well attended; I imagine some boaters would find it difficult to move on. We connected with friends from back home, the Mahoneys on WINDEMERE, while at Brunswick. They are traveling to the Bahamas for the winter on a 42' WesMac lobster boat. It's quite entertaining to see the WINDEMERE sweeping through a fleet of sailboats and trawlers, the only long, low powerful working lobsterboat around!
On November 16 we anchored off of Cumberland Island, the last of the Georgia sea islands. WINDEMERE was with us for a few days and they have invited us to breakfast on their boat. We entered Florida waters this day and split up with the Mahoneys for a while, so breakfast was a good time to talk about plans and hear about the Mahoney's past winters in the Abacos. In Florida during the past week we have spent time in St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Kingsley Plantation (another National Monument) and Cocoa. We have seen white pelicans, osprey, eagles, dolphins, manatees and (we think) an immature golden eagle. We got "boomed" several times on our mooring by the cannon demonstration at Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, and we laughed watching kids and toddlers play on the "Green" at the European Village in Palm Coast, while we had Mexican food at an outdoor table. There has been a lot of damage from the hurricane that hit the southern East Coast
in early October: trees down, docks partially destroyed, some boats up on the river banks or sunken. We skipped past Fernandina Beach, the first town in Florida, because their docks and moorings are damaged and closed.
This week a cold front has come through our area in North Florida, but it has been at least 65-70 every mid-day and still sunny (you need a hat and gloves, though, in the mornings). We are heading for Vero Beach and will stay to the end of the week, taking part in the Community Thanksgiving that the cruisers set up there each year. Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers!