ISLAND BOUND 2007-2008!
Well we are getting close to the four month mark of this trip. It’s a little longer than I had planned on. We are getting tired and getting on each others nerves as any won would in these circumstances. I’m still enjoying the trip very much and it’s changing me a little each day, I hope in some good ways. I’m feeling more seasoned as a sailor and a little more understanding to others needs. We have been grounded once on the intercoastal waterway coming from Southport to Charleston South Carolina. We sat for a little while then worked our selves off the shoal which was just sand by the way and continued on our way. We are traveling with our friends from Australia and Malaysia; Owen, Morina, Robert and Richard. We caught up with them in Georgetown S.C. We are sitting in Charleston SC. Right now waiting out this wind and cold front but will press on in a day or so. The winds and the currents here in the ICW are very strong and with the winds in your face this makes it very difficult to travel on in this area. We pulled a couple more people off the shoals on the ICW last week that had grounded with the low tide and Shallow River. They were not grounded very hard so with just a little pull we were able to get them off the bottom.
We parked in this marina that was some what abandon only to wake with our boat in two foot of water and heeling over to the side. We had to wait 5 hours for the tide to rise and lift us off the bottom. It being a full moon the tide will be as much as a 6 foot difference from high tide to low tide. It didn’t hurt anything just our pride a little. We are 300 miles from crossing over to the Grand Bahamas now and every mile is so crucial and difficult being we are tired and wanting to get to our destination so badly. The days seem to crawl by. I have been working on the boat a lot while Ryan is at the helm. I fixed our stuffing box the other day, it’s where the shaft of the propeller comes out of the bottom of the boat and there is some lubricant in this area to keep the shaft from burning up the bearings. I changed the oil and tightened up more bolts that had come loose in the last 1300 miles of travel. We also put a mount on the back of the boat to hold the dingys engine. I have rigged up a hoist to hold our dingy on the back of the boat; we are using our dingy much more now with anchoring out now in front of marinas to save money. The weather has been great the past week and we made another 178 miles. It has been 70 degrees out and sunny with no wind. Only the past couple of days have been windy and cold. We had 45 mph winds on New Years and today it will be the same. Wednesday it will be 15 mph with the system clearing out and we will take off down the ICW to Beaufort SC then to Savanna GA. I hope you all enjoyed your New Years and the article that was in the paper last week I heard it was nice, I will get some more blogs out soon. We see dolphins every day now and it’s so incredible, to have them come over to the boat to check us out or just say good morning. I have fallen in love with these creatures; they are so pretty and curious of things. I look forward to seeing them now every day. We had one yesterday come over to us turn upside down and swim under the boat looking up at us, remarkable to say the least. Oh I forgot Harry our pelican that has been hanging around for the past few days. You can see his picture under the pictures part of my space or just watch the slide show. We had some fishermen catch a bunch of Mackerel and they gave us some to eat which was just excellent by the way. So I had some left that I feed to this pelican and now I can’t get him to leave the boat. He has adopted us as his family or something. He is there all the time looking for something to eat. So I took a picture of him and named him Harry. Wish all you well and LIVE FOR TODAY. SKIPPER OUT!!!
We parked in this marina that was some what abandon only to wake with our boat in two foot of water and heeling over to the side. We had to wait 5 hours for the tide to rise and lift us off the bottom. It being a full moon the tide will be as much as a 6 foot difference from high tide to low tide. It didn’t hurt anything just our pride a little. We are 300 miles from crossing over to the Grand Bahamas now and every mile is so crucial and difficult being we are tired and wanting to get to our destination so badly. The days seem to crawl by. I have been working on the boat a lot while Ryan is at the helm. I fixed our stuffing box the other day, it’s where the shaft of the propeller comes out of the bottom of the boat and there is some lubricant in this area to keep the shaft from burning up the bearings. I changed the oil and tightened up more bolts that had come loose in the last 1300 miles of travel. We also put a mount on the back of the boat to hold the dingys engine. I have rigged up a hoist to hold our dingy on the back of the boat; we are using our dingy much more now with anchoring out now in front of marinas to save money. The weather has been great the past week and we made another 178 miles. It has been 70 degrees out and sunny with no wind. Only the past couple of days have been windy and cold. We had 45 mph winds on New Years and today it will be the same. Wednesday it will be 15 mph with the system clearing out and we will take off down the ICW to Beaufort SC then to Savanna GA. I hope you all enjoyed your New Years and the article that was in the paper last week I heard it was nice, I will get some more blogs out soon. We see dolphins every day now and it’s so incredible, to have them come over to the boat to check us out or just say good morning. I have fallen in love with these creatures; they are so pretty and curious of things. I look forward to seeing them now every day. We had one yesterday come over to us turn upside down and swim under the boat looking up at us, remarkable to say the least. Oh I forgot Harry our pelican that has been hanging around for the past few days. You can see his picture under the pictures part of my space or just watch the slide show. We had some fishermen catch a bunch of Mackerel and they gave us some to eat which was just excellent by the way. So I had some left that I feed to this pelican and now I can’t get him to leave the boat. He has adopted us as his family or something. He is there all the time looking for something to eat. So I took a picture of him and named him Harry. Wish all you well and LIVE FOR TODAY. SKIPPER OUT!!!
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