Traveling Companions

Cumberland Island is the largest and last barrier island along the Georgia coast. Although it was once owned by wealthy land owners including Carnegie, (here are the ruins of the Carnegie Dungenous mansion), today it is part of the US National Seashore. Since it is largely uninhabited, wildlife has flourished. As we approached the island by boat, we saw horses running along the shore - what a beautiful and exciting sight! Then, as I took a hike later on, I saw an armadillo, a group of turkeys, and horses grazing on the grounds. What a thrill to walk among them knowing they were wild and free. Later on, during the walk back to Lou who was waiting for me at the park rangers' hut, I stopped short when a beautiful pony was standing right on he path. He wasn't moving, so I had to - through the brambles. He looked gentle, but I wasn't taking any chances. I've mentioned the dolphins (some call them porpoises - what's the difference?) that we spy almost everywhere, but we have other temporary companions while traveling. The pelicans have kept us company since the Chesapeake. They are my favorite bird, so clumsy and comical, but graceful when they fly a few inches above the water. And you should see them dive for fish! They're like dive bombers crashing into the water head first. Grebes, a cormorant type bird, have also been diving and emerging for several states now; but they dive from the water, not the sky. Of course, the ever present egrets, herons and other shore birds continue to follow us. While we were out in the ocean off the Jersey coast back in late September, one day we were visited by Monarch butterflies following us almost the entire day, but curiously, they never landed on the boat to rest! Our smallest companions came in the guise of an infestation of fruit flies; we finally eliminated them by following up on a sailor's suggestion to put out apple cider vinegar. It attracted them and solved the problem. Who knows what's next... PS. It's hard to take close ups of animals, especially birds, so don't forget you can click on the pictures to see them better.

Giving Thanks Away from Home

We might have been lonely and sad this Thanksgiving if it hadn't been for 270 other southbound cruisers meeting at St. Mary's, Georgia.

Several years ago, a few sail boats took refuge from a storm in St. Mary's a few days before Thanksgiving, and asked where they could get a holiday meal. Several townspeople offered to cook a turkey and ham if the cruisers brought the fixin's. And so, a yearly event was established at Seagal's, the local hotel restuarant. Each year the number of boats has grown, and this year topped 100.

What a feast we had; We started off with roasted oysters provided by the restaurant. Here are pictures of Gerry, former mayor of St. Mary's and owner of the hotel, cleaning, steaming and serving the oysters for hungry cruisers. The whole in the middle of the table is for the oyster shells after we opened them. Three rows of tables were laden with every imaginable dish for the holiday. What was more surprising, was the quality of the food. I'm realizing more and more that cruisers really care about food and know how to cook. Some cruisers even brought their own holiday tablecloths, placemats, napkins and decorations.

The event was planned by a small group of cruisers and townies; to make things operate smoothly, every morning at 9:00 a.m. a few days before the holiday, we listened to a broadcast of the 'Turkey Net' (for network) over our VHF radios. Announcements were made followed by questions and then we signed up for such things as a ride to the supermarket, laundry, or West Marine store. Two days before Thanksgiving, and again on Saturday night, a happy hour was planned on the restaurant patio with cruisers bringing appetizers thus giving us all an opportunity to meet and network with people we had already met along the way as well as new friends. It's all part of the adventure of cruising!And I thought I would be bored...

The day we left, we headed for Florida, only five miles away.

Celebrating my Birthday on Jekyll Island

About a month ago, I asked Lou to connect the electric head (toilet) for my birthday. He had turned it off because it drew too much battery power, but I had never gotten a chance to use it. By today, I had forgotten my request. In the morning, after having tea served to me in bed, I went to wash up and discovered, much to my surprise, the lever for the head was missing. Lou had hooked up the electric connection! I don't ask for much, but this was a delightful present.

By the way, an interesting fact: the term 'head' comes from the old days when sailors would have to go over the side to relieve themselves. They would go to the bow of the boat where the figurehead and headsails were. Thus the phrase"going to the head" was coined.

To celebrate my birthday, we anchored at Jekyll Island, Georgia, which is one of the barrier islands close to the Florida border. The island is so flat that many use bikes to explore the island, and we were no different. Our cloudy, chilly day turned bright, warm and sunny, lighting up this Golden Isle, named for the beautiful yellow color of the salt marsh reeds. The ride, along paved bike paths, was spectacular as we passed woodlands as beautiful as a botanical garden, inland salt marshes and marsh hammocks, beaches and the ocean. We stopped twice; once to walk along the white sand beach to dramatically snarled tree trunks and limbs of upturned trees partially buried in the sand. So, sorry - I forgot my camera and don't have a picture. While we walked along the beach, dolphins were playing (or feeding?) about 20 feet off the beach, and one sped towards me so fast I thought it would land on the beach. "He did that for my birthday", I told Lou.

On the way back to our anchorage, we stopped along the Atlantic side to see the surf and tide breaking along the bottom of the steps and the sand dunes above. It was late in the day, dusk beginning, and the light took on its crepuscular glow.

Later, after showers, we biked back to a grand mansion once the largest home on the island called Crane "Cottage" which was built for Crane of plumbing supplies fame. We had dinner by the light of a fireplace. Biking there and back in the dark, we rode along brightly lit displays of holiday decorations making it appear like a fantasyland. The most spectacular were the white lights strung up and along the trunks and limbs of the live oak trees embracing the road from both sides.

At first, we weren't sure if we wanted to go to Savannah. It was 16 miles out of our way - that's 3 hours since we motor 5 miles an hour! We tried to get into a marina along the way, so we could take a taxi or bus there, but it was booked for 3 days. Finally, I said to Lou, it was crazy to be so close and not go, so off we went. After traveling under cloudy, cold and drizzly skies, we were lucky enough to get space at the municipal dock right in the heart of town. We thought we would have to tie up on our own, but were greeted by the skippers of 3 other sailboats who promptly invited us to join them at lunch! We had just eaten, so we ended up taking a trolley tour of the city and learned some fascinating things: In the 70s, Savannah was a ghetto with no money and interest in restoration. Then, the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil came out followed by the movie (the picture above is the home of the main character who is tried for murder); that changed everything. People became interested in the city, began buying up cheap property, and kindled interest in restoring the beautiful buildings. Here is the restored reform Jewish temple (yes, that's right!) which was established back in the 1700s by a small group of Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain, although it was not originally reform. We toured the sanctuary with a former president of the congregation hailing from Brooklyn, NY several decades ago. We loved this town. It was originally planned as a grid system centuries ago is very easy to get around, and every few blocks opens onto a square park. The fountain here is in the largest, Forsyth Park. It's very cosmopolitan, and, as you can see, lush everywhere you look, but still a little rough around the edges. Charleston was gorgeous, but manicured, and perhaps in Lou's words, 'self-conscious'. Savannah's historic district, in contrast, felt comfortable and easy going. The next day after returning to the boat from our exploration of the town, we discovered Jim and Beth of Madcap (cruisers always refer to boat names when mentioning people) who we had previously met in Beaufort. They were standing next to another couple who we assumed they knew. We invited them all for drinks, and it turned out that they didn't know each other after all, but were sailors, too! While we were chatting, Margaret and Phil received a call from Dan and Marjorie, native Savannians to join them for dinner at a local Japanese restaurant, and invited us to go along! A delightful evening of serendipity, don't you think?

Next day, we left the sanctuary of Savannah for the peaceful beauty of the Georgia salt marshes along the ICW.

Meeting Fred in Beaufort, SC

All along our trip, we've been talking to Fred, our Nyack neighbor who lives on his Nordic Tug, Northstar, in the Hudson during the spring and fall months when he's not cruising. Fred has done the trip to the Bahamas a number of times and has been one of Lou's gurus for this trip. So, it was with great pleasure, that we finally caught up with each other in South Carolina.

Beaufort, pronounced Byoofort, as opposed to Beaufort, North Carolina (pronounced the way it is spelled) was the quintessential southern town. Fred took us on a walk of the point to see pecan trees (we picked the nuts up off the ground and opened them to get at the delicious meat inside), live oaks covered in Spanish moss (these trees are unlike northern oak trees, but massive in size and breadth), and plantation type homes.

In the evening, we had dinner with Fred and his friend Mark, and experienced this sunset. Next stop: Savannah!

Saying Goodbye in Charleston

Today Marla and Tony left us :( On their last day, Marla and I went to the Charleston Aquarium, and what a special place it was.

Overlooking the harbor, it incorporated the outside with the inside. The picture on the left shows a salt marsh complete with heron, egrets, turtles, etc. as we looked out on the harbor beyond. Tony chose, instead, to stay aboard with Lou working on repairs. Here he is up the mast working on one of the lights. (Can't figure out how

to turn the picture, though. Another thing to work on.)

Tony and Marla left us with wonderful gifts. Tony installed our new radio so we can now listen to selections from my ipod, Marla copied songs and jokes from her ipod to CDs for us; and if that wasn't enough, Tony completely restocked our bar. Of course, if they hadn't done any of that, their company would have been enough. Tony helped Lou navigate and steer (saving me the onerous job during cold mornings!), and Marla shared the task of cooking lunches and dinners giving me more time for myself. They had come as crew to go out into the ocean on overnight voyages, but we never made it due to cold temperatures, bad wind direction and strong seas. Hope they'll come back to try again.

Here we are trying to keep warm with our propane heater; when we are on shore power, we have been using our electric portable heater that Lyn Borek gave us - thanks Lyn - we love it!

Charleston is wonderful, by the way. The entire downtown is lovingly and beautifully restored and every block is a feast for the eyes. We started our exploration with a carriage ride (if you look closely, you can see Lou waving); later, Marla seridipitously found a coffee shop one holding an open mike night. Lou and Marla played backgammon while we rested our tired feet escaping the cold and listened to poetry, folk and jazz mostly by young people from the University of South Carolina.

Some interesting sights we encountered: it's full of colonial houses that have a false door that leads to a piazza, or balcony/deck on the side of the house. It's from there that you actually enter the house. Crepe myrtle trees and creeping fig are also abundant throughout the city. And, the ubiquitous palmetto palm trees protected the city from invasion from the British: they were used to create a 'fort' and when the British fired cannons, they became imbedded in the soft 'trunks' without doing damage. Thus, the palmetto tree on the state flag.

We're having fun eating here, too; we tried fried green tomatoes, bisquits with sausage gravy, creamed corn, catfish, shrimp with grits, and of course, fried chicken. Looking forward to trying ho cake. (What IS that?)

Note: Just learned from our friend, Bob Fine, that if you click on the word 'comments' at the bottom of each post, even if it has a zero in front of it, it will send you to a window where you can leave a message for us. Be forewarned, though, I may publish it!

Waiting out Hurricane Noel

Right now, Lou,Tony, Marla and I are waiting out hurricane Noel in a dredged basin in the Camp LeJeune Marine Base in southern North Carolina. Seven other boats are here, mostly sailboats and we know a few from the New Bern Gam. We chose this basin for its safety, but it has turned out to be a lovely and interesting spot as well despite the incessant winds. We are surrounded by marshland and can see occasional boats traveling down the ICW. Contrasted with that are the sounds of machine guns, cannons and Osprey(?) helicopters (the type that can change their wings to fly like an airplane)from the training grounds. Nearby, is an old, rusted tanker. Its bow has a gun mounted to the top and opens to allow tanks to come out. Lou and I went ashore and met a Phillapino couple fishing for mullet with lines and nets; they had caught 19 of them before leaving. They were curious about the sailboats and wondered what they were used for. The idea of recreational cruising was strange to them.

On shore were piles of large oyster shells we assumed were from the dredging. Shoaling is a constant problem along the waterways, as you can imagine, and we were able to see a dredging boat in the distance spewing out the water in a long graceful stream it had sucked out of the channel bed.

Last night was a magnificent sunset; the four of us were busy taking 'art' pictures followed by dinner and rummikub (thanks Carol and Cliff!). I asked myself, "Whatever happened to red sky at night, sailors' delight with a hurricane brewing?" Well, during the night, the wind started up and we all slept poorly, but the morning brought sun. I guess the sailors ditty has it right. The next day was sunny, but very windy. We kept listening to the forecast awaiting the worst, but it never came; the most we got was strong wind gusts which rattled, shook, and turned the boat. Apparently, there is another sailors' ditty about the wind that Lou taught me that explained it all:

Wind before Rain,

You'll soon sail again;

Rain before Wind,

Topsails lowered,

and halyards mind.

They were right again; we were sailing down the ICW the next day, sun shining despite a very cold morning.

New Bern and the Southbound Cruisers Rendezvous

New Bern, named by a Swiss, is not technically on our trip south, but it was an opportunity to meet, network and learn about the cruisers' life at the Southbound Cruisers Rendezvous or 'gam' (get together). We anchored in the Trent River and spent 6 days going ashore with our dinghy to explore, greet and meet, and, as Tony said, go to school.

Tony and his wife Marla came to join us into Florida. In preparation for their arrival, I cleaned the boat thoroughly and thought to myself while scrubbing the floor of the head (bathroom), I don't even do this at home! Next day, I paid for it - my sciatica returned. It's a sure consequence of cleaning, so Lou will just have to do it from now on!

Anyway, the four of us celebrated Marla's birthday at a seafood restaurant with a wonderful sparkling chardonnay, Barefoot Bubbly. The next day we took a tour of the Tryon Palace which was the first governor's mansion, and a trolley ride of the New Bern historic homes and buildings.

At the Gam, we attended presentations by experienced cruisers on topics such as Suddenly Alone (what to do in the event that your partner is incapaciated), Forecasting Weather, When Mars and Venus Go Cruising, and Real World Advice for Beginning Cruisers. The presentations were professional and everyone was friendly and helpful. On the last night, we celebrated with a fried chicken dinner and were entertained by a Barbershop Quartet of fellow cruisers.

One surprise at coming to New Bern, was getting in touch with old friends of Lou's, David and Diana Sousa. The three of them hadn't been in touch since the Sousas moved down to North Carolina from Rockland County when they used to sail together 25 years ago. Of course, everyone still looked the same! During our stay, we had a lovely dinner at their home, and they graciously offered to let me shower there which was a real treat from the confined space of the boat. Our last evening ashore they took us to the Centenary Methodist Church for a theme dinner in the basement. Everyone was dressed as monks in a darkened room lit by candles and we were entertained with medievel acapella chants.

Back on our trip south on the North Carolina Intracoastal Waterway...

Oriental

Oriental is a small village on the coast of the Neuse River in North Carolina. We anchored here to escape the forecasted high winds and thunderstorms. The first night we bounded out of bed in order to close all of the hatches and portholes due to torrential rain, and today while in a marine store a squall hit - high winds and heavy rains causing huge puddles and rivers of water in the streets. But the whole thing was over within 10 minutes. Thankfully, we weren't sailing; Lou reviewed procedures in the event that we are. As you can see, the sun didn't stay in for very long. In fact, we have been told by a waitress who moved to North Carolina from Ohio, that there are rarely a series of gloomy days down here.

This charming and friendly village is arty yet centered around fishing and boating. Many people we met were transplanted northeners. The woman running the marina office, a retired principal from Patterson, NJ, explained that she fell in love with Oriental when she realized strangers were saying hello to her as she drove in her car. That, and the warmer weather and lower prices convinced her.

We decided to stay a second day due to high winds and attended a chili cook-off. Lou and I had our favorite: The Deightons chili had bacon and a secret ingredient (I swore not to tell) giving it a slightly sweet flavor. We bought a container to have later, and took a picture of the chefs.

Our third night in Oriental, we tied up at the town dock. Here is Lou next to Ripple Effect. You can see the commercial fishing boats beyond. (reminder: you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.)

Thanks to Lynn and Lee, my sisters who gave me a portable DVD player for my last birthday, (and friends Sally and Evan, and cousins Susan and Jordan for lending us videos) we are enjoying movies on the boat. Last night we watched TransAmerica with Hillary Duff which was an uneasy, but engrossing movie. She deserved getting an Academy nomination.

While here, Lou found a marine consignment shop and I unfolded my bike and took a ride along the coast looking at the lovely houses and stopped at the local supermarket on the way back.

On New Year's eve, the town holds a dragon parade symbolic of the Orient, and throughout the town we were surprised by dragons on porches, in stores, and even in streams where the picture above was taken.

On to the Southbound Cruisers' Rendezvous next...

The Dismal Swamp

Dear Blog Readers, I had intended on publishing many more pictures and more frequently, but due to difficulties with the software despite Marla's wonderfully knowledgeable guidance, it has been spotty. So, rather than waiting longer, here is my next installment. Please send your comments (click on the comment button at the bottem of the post) and let me know if you want less description, more about us, more about the boat...whatever: Entering the Great Dismal Swamp route of the ICW was a last minute decision and as Lou says, "Like all last minute decisions, it proved to be the right one." That's Lou, for you. After the enormity and cacaphony of Norfolk, the swamp was quiet, peaceful and calm.

In 1728 a colonel brought a group of surveyors to explore the swamp, and after surviving yellow flies, chiggers and ticks, described it as "dismal" and a"horrible desert". Originally 2200 miles, over time development has eroded the area and today only 600 square miles remain thanks to legislation.

The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest continuously running canal in the US and the only canal with locks on the ICW. It was our first experience going through locks, and though it took forever, was fun, interesting and the time passed quickly as we chatted with the other boat owners waiting to go through with us.

The water in the canal is brown due to the tannic acid in the water from the bark of surrounding trees. Water in our faucet and head looked strangely dirty, but in fact, tasted fine and was healthy to drink as the acid prevents bacteria from growing. Further on down the canal, we encountered an enormous amount of what looked like algae but is called duck weed here. It was so thick that it appeared to be a green carpet. Things could even float on it. It had a beautiful luminescence; however, problems ensued. Several boats, including ours, got the stuff stuck in our fresh water intake thruhull. We had to stop and blow out hoses and valves. Lou finally solved the problem by shoving a wire coat hanger through the thruhull. The whole episode delayed our progress and we were hard pressed to get to an anchorage area in the swamp before the sun set. The next morning, as we took off, the sight was stunning: the early morning fog and rising sun gave a mysterious view of the swamp.

A week after traveling through the canal, we were informed that it had been temporarily closed; the dry conditions this summer and fall had caused the water level to fall too low for boats to pass through.