St Augustine, FL
Neither of us had been to St Augustine before, though we always wanted to visit. We were not disappointed! It's a walkable, historic, fun city. We spent most of the time in the historic district with a few walks into the surrounding areas.
Savannah
We’ve had 3 1/2 beautiful days in Savannah, in large part due to Bruce and Nancy acting as our personal tour guides! They graciously welcomed us to stay at their condo association’s dock. Having dockside electricity has been fantastic these cold nights. Savannah is such a great city full of gorgeous...
Weather
Crazy cold weather is back! It’s been in the low 40’s for the morning with 15-20 knots of wind. They say it’ll go up to 55! At least it’s sunny (though it was cloudy and cold when we left Charleston Harbor at 6:30 am). We were woken up on Tuesday or Wednesday (I’ve lost track of days!) night when a...
Dolphins
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but we have seen many dolphins swimming right alongside our boat. Sometimes they ride the bow wake, other times they swim next to the cockpit. One day, a dolphin surfaced about 3 feet off the port side and blew out his blowhole with great force, a huge spray went up...
Charleston
Charleston...a wonderful city! We’ve played tourist for the past 5 days. So much to see and do. Time to move on, tomorrow we head out towards Savannah. Charleston has been on my list for a long time, glad to finally see it. The architecture is unreal - Irving Place, Franklin St and the Elmwood Villa...
Cape Lookout, NC
We anchored in the bight of Cape Lookout for two nights. This was wonderful. The black and white checkered lighthouse was a beautiful sight. We dinghy’d in and went to the visitor’s center of this national park. The lighthouse keeper’s house is now a museum, we were the only visitors at the time. Un...
Finally a sunny day and birds of prey
Up at first light to find the cockpit covered with hundreds (thousands?) of gnats. They left a green slime. They are just like Lake Erie gnats except 10 times the size. We spent our first few hours underway cleaning them up. While going up the Alligator River, a military fighter jet screamed past us...
Boat Parade
Our sail from Portsmouth to Coinjock was funny...a virtual parade of cruising boats making their way south. There's a lift bridge about 11 miles from Portsmouth/Norfolk which doesn't open for boaters between 6:30 and 8:30 am to accommodate rush hour. Therefore, there's usually a group of boats there...
Norfolk
JACKPOT!! We arrived in Norfolk yesterday afternoon. Warm and sunny weather! When we walked out of the Gosport Tavern at around 7:30 last evening, it was actually warmer than inside the restaurant. Such a great feeling. Today we took the ferry over to Norfolk (we’re docked in Portsmouth) and spent t...
Thoughts on the "cruising life"
Along the way we've met many others on their way south. One couple, in a Peterson 44, has been living onboard and cruising for 33 years! The first 7 years they were stationary in Washington, DC. Since then, they've crossed the Atlantic several times and gone up and down the east coast nearly every y...
Solomons Island, MD
Saturday, October 19. Anchored in Mill Creek, the nearby shore’s bushes and trees are changing color...reds, oranges and golds amongst the still predominantly green foliage. It’s very serene, only 2 knots of wind now, at 8:00 pm. We dinghy’d in to the Island. The walk from end to end is just 1.5 mil...
Cruising from Bflo to Florida and beyond, eventually
Yesterday was the 2 week mark since our departure. It’s been a busy time. Living and moving on a boat leaves little time for relaxation if you’re picking up every day to continue on. That’s pretty much what we’ve done due to the cold and often rainy weather we’ve had. No sense in taking it slow when...