Day 34-40 / 606 Statutory Miles: Isle of Hope (Savannah)

Left St.Simon at the crack of dawn - day looked clear, right until we ran into a solid bank of fog.  this lasted for over an hour with near 0 visibility.  When it would clear for a half hour, just to make you think you were done with it, it was back again.  In and out of the fog until almost noon. Thank god for radar and a great captain.  At one point, Den thought he saw something on the radar (the blips swapped places), a few minutes later out of the fog, comes a silent sailboat.  It was unnerving to say the least.

Once the fog cleared, the rest of the ride was uneventful, including passing through Little Mud River, which we needed to hit on a rising tide to have enough water.

Planning paid off! 

Total ride took just over 7 hours, by the time we pulled into Isle of Hope Marina.  This is the same marina that we stayed at when commissioning the Gypsy Soul in Feb 2012.  Still a great place, with very helpful & professional staff and very picturesque.  This leg of the trip crossed Altamah Sound, Doboy River/Sound Sapello Sound & St. Catherine Sound which was kind of cool with the "rollers" and currents.  So different from the day before which was all very small creeks, rivers and narrow channels.

After giving GS a bath, both inside & out and took advantage of the courtesy car from the marina to get our fluids refilled, we spent the better part of Friday walking through Isle of Hope, which is just one of the cutest places we've been - very old & nautical style homes.

On Saturday, we treated ourselves to a couples massage before meeting up with Beth & Rome to celebrate St. Patricks day in Savannah.  Talk about living under a rock - we had no idea that St. Patricks day celebration in Savannah was so renown.  The place was rockin.  We were introduced to Ken & Sue from Annapolis, who had lived in Savannah for several years who showed us around Tybee Island on Sunday where we shared an amazing meal at the Crab Shack.

City Market (outside of Wildwings)

The Crab Shack - Tybee Island

Monday was spent chillin and getting the GS ready to head to Hilton Head Island - dinner was a T-bone on the grill, just enjoying the perfect spring evening.  Light breeze, sky full of stars and dead calm water.  Except for the no-seeums it was spot on.  During our stay at IOH, we witnessed how much of a working body of water the intercoastal waterway is, daily, barges, tugs, river cruise boats passed by along with the everyday cruisers/boaters & fishermen.  Monday night, we were up close and personal to the biggest thing I've seen move on the water - no kidding.  We watched the spot lights head our way for at least 45 minutes before 2 barges with 5 tugs passed by.  The first barge was close to 300 yards (yep 2.5 - 3 football fields in length, not a typo) It looked like there was city on this thing.  This was only to be followed by one that was even longer - we are estimating ~ 400 yards.  It took the corner so much wider that as the front corner started to make the turn, it was about 100ft from the back of our boat.  The tugs pulling & pushing these things were so much fun to watch, there was a small little tender/tug, who's job was to go here and push and go there & push, to keep the vessel from running aground and to keep it making the corner.  There is a video of the first barge at the bottom of this post, it's kind of long as it took a good 5-7 minutes to make the corner where we were.

Mobil link to Pictures  Isle of Hope

Day 27 - 33/522 Statutory Miles: St. Augustine/Fernandina & St. Simons

We have checked off 3 more stops since our last update:

Day 27-29: St. Augustine is always a favorite stop and you can always count on the weather to be completely random.  This visit did not disappoint on any of the fronts.  We had weather in the mid 80's and sunny where we were sportin our shorts and flippy floppys and we had rain, gale force winds with a high of 45 the very next day.  Mr. B discovered the "magic" of bourbon @ the tiny martini bar.

Bourbon is Awesome!

After which we finally were able to dine at Catch 27. It is named Catch 27 for the fresh seafood they serve from the 27th state; the great state of Florida.  Dos Equis made an appearance at several local S.A. establishments.  You could even find him tending bar a few times.

At the Spanish ship El Galeon

Tending Bar @ JP Henley

Tending Bar @ JP Henley's Steak House

Finishing the night off @ Stogies

Then came the "weather"  clouds, rain & gale force winds joined us on Friday along with the Morgan's and we weren't certain that we would be leaving for Fernandina on Saturday, but what a difference a day makes...

Day 30 - 31 Fernandina:  Well the weather gods cooperated and calmed the winds down quite a bit from last night and we made the ride to Fernandina.  It took most of the day, but what a pretty ride it was, and we so enjoyed having Kevin & Laurie join us for this leg of the trip.

 Laurie grew up in Fernandina and gave us the insider tour of the town.  We visited the oldest saloon in Florida - the pink palace, which, by the way was the last saloon to close in American during prohibition.

The ladies brought Dos Equis to his knees @ the Palace Saloon

What a great little town this is!  I am sorry that we never took the time out to visit it before now.  It has the cutest downtown filled with shops and restaurants and even an antique store or two (making Mr. B very happy).  Dinner @ the Salty Pelican (not the Salty Duck) was amazing - we all had a pile of the freshest fish you could imagine.  The island is ~ 2 miles wide, so it was an easy bike ride to the beach.  Wrapped up the day with some peel & eat right off the boat and a beautiful sunset

Day 32 - 33:  As we looked at the next couple legs of our trip - there were a few places where we needed to pass closer to high tide than to low tide. Jekyll Creek & Little Mud River both looked like they could give us problems with our 4 1/2 ft draft, which could be solved with a slight change of plans - go to St. Simons rather than Jekyll Island.  So today our quick ride of ~ 4 hours to St. Simons Island, crossed us into the great state of Georgia.  Easy ride with the boat and we timed Jekyll creek mid a rising tide making this touchy passage a non event, which is just how you like it. Passing Cumberland National Seashore, the landscape started to change and get some contour.  As we passed the marshes on the backside, it looked like there were some large animals on the shoreline.  I couldn't make out what they were, but when looking through the binoculars - I was stunned to find out they were horses!  Pretty cool!

Morningstar Marina, just off the ICW in the Frederica River, will be our home for the next few days and is pretty very nice.  They showed us lots of southern hospitality, which I think is just the best. Staying here could really get me spoiled.

Yep - it's a newspaper & fresh muffins delivered to our door each morning

Great island for biking, walking & shopping.  There are bike paths on all of the streets. Downtown is located right on St. Simons Sound & the historic district is on the Atlantic Ocean.


Next stop is Savannah - Isle of Hope Marina.  "Where it all began"

Mobile link to St Augustine & Fernandina Pix
Mobile link to St. Simons Pix

Week Home / Palm Coast

Day 18 - 26 (21 on the boat) and 396 Statutory Miles

The week home went was great and it went by so quickly, and I got to see my #1 girl for her final dress fitting.  It was so good to see everyone and spend time - it was short time but high quality time,  dinner, beers and a birthday party, I don't think we can ever get enough of sitting around, drinking beer & telling lies".  I still just want to pack everyone up and put them in our suitcases for the rest of the trip!

While the week home was awesome - it feels really good to be back on the boat. It seems like we had just found our rhythm. Left mid morning from Halifax to Palm Coast.  The fog lifted around 9:30.  By the time we got our act in order - it was about 10:30 when we pulled out of the slip and headed north, cleared the Memorial bridge and drove straight into the fog and just barely above 0 visibility.  That was exciting.  I learned really quickly how to turn on the radar!  Thank god it didn't last too long and we were in and out of it for the first portion of our trip to Palm Coast.

Now, we have stayed at Hammock Dunes Marina several times and really enjoy the facilities. This time was no different, however, we have our bikes and were able to explore more than the marina and resort and discovered another gorgeous Florida State Park - Washington Oaks Gardens which contains a formal garden and several walking/biking trails.  One of them winds along the ICW - it was pretty cool to see it from the "other side".   Finished the day with some massive T-Bones on the grill just relaxing, shooting the breeze and sipping on a nice "red" with Tim.

During our stay, we met several fellow boaters who have been chasing the warm weather south, it was awesome hearing about their adventures along the way and we look forward to seeing them on their trek North.  This stop over was just perfect. Now on to St. Augustine.





Mobile link to Pix:
Washington Oaks
Week Home

Palm Beach

As I write this I'm sitting in the cockpit having a cigar & sipping on some Giuseppe desert wine that we've been saving for just the right night and this one is it.  This is the last stop before we return to Daytona for a week.  It's been a great trip and a nice way to give the boat and us a "shake down" before we head north for a longer excursion.

Dolphins helped me with my lines this morning.

We left North Palm Friday morning, stopping @ Vero Beach and now Titusville.  The days, have been bright & sunny, but down right cold right up to today. Today we were treated to dolphin's playing in our wake several times.

The trip from NPB to Vero was rough on the water, GS took a lot of spray over the bow and was pretty crusty when we stopped for the night.  She did great on the water and was a comfortable ride - just a bit taxing on the captain.  I enjoyed watching the water turn from green to blue and the bridge tender attitudes improve as we made our way back north.  I'd heard stories of the infamous bridges - but now I'm a believer. Kevin - I too made Mr. B "deal" with them.

While in NPB, we discovered MacArthur Beach State park (5 mile bike ride), which was phenomenal.  Great walking trails and a 1 1/2 mile boardwalk across Lake Worth to the beach.  I continue to be impressed by Florida State parks.  They don't ever disappoint.

The marina was chock full of boats - each one bigger and prettier than the next.  At one point we counted 13 tuna towers and each made us look pretty small in comparison.  We also had a visit by some manatees - a momma and her baby.

I think we figured out our "routine" of living on the boat, and I mean routine in a very good way.  Its funny what creatures of habit we all are.

The week concluded with a very nice evening downtown West Palm Beach on my date with Lebone.

Looking forward to seeing our home town peeps next week - miss everyone a lot - keep the face time calls coming - you made our day.

Mobile link to pix ==> here

Vero

It's hard to believe it's already time to leave - time is just flying by. Made great time on our trip down from Cocoa - we were in our Vero slip by 2p and made the 55 mile trip in almost 6 hours to the minute. On this leg, you really started to feel like you were somewhere different. The water turned a little greener, the houses got a lot bigger! There is some serious coin in this part of the state. The waterway was uneventful - just the way we like it with the exception of some dredging that was going on just north of Vero. Between the large pieces of equipment and all of the markers in the water - it was very confusing where you were supposed to go vs where you were NOT supposed to go.

Again we were treated with a dolphin escort - 3 of them this time playing in our wake. They are like giant kids and always with a smile on their faces. I'm sure that by the time this trip is done, you all will be tired of the trillion dolphin videos that we end up sharing, so you can skip the video if you like.
We ended up taking the bikes out for a spin today.  We are going to do that a lot more.  Good exercise, and a great way to see the local area.  There are some great neighborhoods in and around this marina.  As we were headed back, we stumbled upon one of the best parks that I've ever seen.  There were multiple walking trails, bike trails, a fitness trail with over a dozen basic workout activities to do along a mile long trail.
In addition to an art museum on site, there was a beautiful veterans memorial. The island was built with the surplus dredging material from the ICW, an effort that started in the mid 1960's.  What an impressive place, very tastefully done and was truly a "moving" experience.

Tomorrow's run will be just over 60 miles and several no wake zones, so it feels like it will be a long day on the water.  The captain has informed me that we will be up and underway by 7a - work! work! work!  Link to Pix for mobile users

Cocoa Village

3 Nights @ Cocoa Village.  Weather was cold and windy, especially Monday night when it "roared" most of the night.  The village is very cute with shops, restaurants and pubs.  Took the opportunity of having a Publix and West Marine within a couple miles to pick up some groceries.  I know how to provision for a long weekend of playing - we're learning how to provision for day to day living.  We have discovered that living on a boat is different than vacationing on a boat.  Living on a boat requires some regular routines that vacationing doesn't (cleaning, laundry, groceries) that we will develop.  We have also discovered that we need a day calendar, we have had to really think hard to remember what day of the week it is.

We visited Travis Hardware, which has been in business since late 1880's and was started by Colonel S.F.Travis, who served in the American Civil War who had a sailboat.  He went up and down the rivers, delivering items and taking orders from Jacksonville to Fort Pierce.  Bricks and mortar were established in 1892 initially as a warehouse before becoming the retail store that is there today.  The hardware store is still operated by the Travis family and still offer free delivery except no longer by barge.  

Local establishments that we checked out that are definitely worth going back to again; Ryans Village Pizza; Village Idiot Pub; Dog-n-Bone English Pub and Murdocks Bar & Char.

This evening was topped off by a rocket launch.  It was a fairly small launch, but spectacular none the less.  I can't imagine what the shuttle or Apollo must have been like from this vantage point. 

DI to Cocoa

Left DI about 8:30am for Cocoa. Stopping for fuel and pump-out in Titusville, arriving in Cocoa around 4pm.  Ran into rain just after Titusville and it's been pouring ever since. Makes for great sleeping tonight.  Covered about 55 miles and enjoyed the company of some dolphins along the way