We Have Arrived!!

After 2,197 miles, after 114 days, 14 hours and 15 minutes, after 17 lift bridges, 31 swing and bascule bridges, and 36 locks, on November 22^nd at 1415, we motored into Taylor Creek at Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce, FL. Holy bilge water, what a trip, what an experience. . Those of you who have done this know what I mean and understand how words just don’t suffice. Marg and I are much better sailors than we were when we started. We were challenged at times and if we knew those challenges would have been laid down before us, we may have thought twice about going. But having been confronted with adversities, being able to overcome them and continue on was what gave us the confidence to meet the next challenge.

We took 100s of pictures – too many to share in this blog.  The ones we’ve shared with you all are only the tip of the journey. Plus, pictures just can’t capture it. The devastation of Irene in upstate NY, the impenetrable fog off the Jersey coast, the sunsets and sunrises, the power of the ocean, the creatures we met along the way (human, aquatic, fowl and mammal), the beautiful seaside, riverside and canal-side villages we visited, the anchorages we stayed in that were in creeks off of rivers that were so isolated and we were so alone, and the nights were so dark that it was claustrophobic, New York City and the Statue of Liberty, connecting with friends for a few days along the way, unseasonably hot weather, unseasonably cold weather, unusually strong winds (I now have a new appreciation for how futile weather predicting is), food, glorious food – grouper, shrimp, low county whatever, spot fish, pizza the way it is supposed to taste, the boating community in general. I could go on forever.

Attached are some pictures we took the last couple of days. We are putting together an album of a more comprehensive recap of our trip. I know many of you will not be able to see it unless we publish a coffee table book that only about 2 people would buy. But trust me, the pictures are great.

Finally, I could not wrap this up without thanking a few people for helping us on our trip. Jeff and Sandy Bacon gave us all of their charts, cruising guides and notes in hopes that we would learn from their mistakes. Most of the info was about their dog, Hatch, but it was invaluable nonetheless. Steve Watterson for his great book, A Year in Paradise.  Steve and Margaret captured the soul of the journey. We used their book often as a supplement to the more technical cruising guides. Our daughter and son-in-law, Janet and Bob, who took care of our house, paid our bills and mowed the lawn, raked the leaves and even shoveled the snow once already.  Our friends, Chris and Sandy Taylor, Blue Janis, Dick and Susie Haller and Jim and Blanche Terracino, who joined us for parts of the trip. I hope you had as much fun as we did. Fred and Lorraine Ford-Smith who sent us many emails with fantastic info from his trawler group about updates on the Erie Canal problems and other navigational changes (the info we got from Fred was usually more accurate than what we got from the Canal Corporation). The heroic folks at the Schenectady Yacht Club who saved our asses and our boat during hurricane Irene, particularly Rick and Kathy Fleming. Andre and Nathalie, our Quebecquois friends whom we spent a month travelling together after the Erie Canal adventure. We now know that if it’s 20 degrees Celsius it is actually a very nice day. To our friend Lee Jordan and daughter Janet for the fabulous send off party, Kenny Juergens and Sherry Cooper for music to cruise by, Stu and Sally Neidus for the fabulous send off dinner, Mary Bookman and our friends and colleagues at Forest Corporation for the fabulous send off party, and our sailing buddies at Dock of the Bay for the fabulous send off party. The folks at McGregor and the folks at Elderhealth for the fabulous send off parties. And to all of you who followed us on our blog and sent your messages of encouragement to us. We hope we can see you all and share the stories directly with you. You are all such good friends.

We’re here now. After a trip to Fort Myers to share Thanksgiving with my parents, we are off to Chagrin Falls to share in the birth of our second grandchild, celebrate Christmas with Marg’s mom, and the rest of our family, see friends in town that we miss terribly, and reunite with some of our Dock of the Bay friends at Rodger Saffold’s and Donna Rice’s annual Holiday Party, we will return to Fort Pierce to prepare for our next adventure – the Bahamas!

A friend along for the ride

Alize at port in Hilton Head

Marg at a bar in Hilton Head

Dick at a bar in Hilton Head

Pelicans looking for dinner

Miles and miles of jelly fish

Birds checking out the shrimper

 

A nuclear sub in Jacksonville

A conga line of 14 boats heading south

At the Palace in Fernandina. This
bar was designed by Adolphus Busch

Our last anchorage

  

Arriving in Fort Pierce

 

The First 1500 Miles

My favorite movie of all times is Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. And my favorite line from the movie comes at the end when Arvie Singer – Woody Allen’s character – tries to explain his ambivalent relationship with Annie. He tells the story about his brother in law who thinks he’s a chicken. Arvie takes him to a psychiatrist who diagnosis the brother in law’s condition and tells Arvie that he can correct the problem. Arvie thinks about it for a minute and declines the psychiatrists offer. When the psychiatrist asks why, Arvie explains that he needs the eggs. This is how Arvie feels about Annie and I think that this is how Marg and I feel about this trip. It’s almost over. Less than two weeks to go before we get to Fort Pierce. Lots of drama has transpired over the last 3 ½ months. Hurricanes, floods, tropical storms, fog, mechanical delays. If I ever hear the words, “The weather is unusually [cold, hot, windy, rainy] for this time of the year” one more time, I might throttle the person that utters them. But here we are, less than two weeks from our destination and I can’t think of a single instance that didn’t make me feel like I’ve been on the adventure of a lifetime. I don’t want to relive Irene, or the fogs of Sandy Hook, or the scary-ass Jersey coast passage, particularly Manasquan, or being so cold at some anchorage that I would have traded Marg for a three dog night. But, seeing dolphins swimming next to the boat, and meeting cruisers from all over the place who have been living on their boats travelling all over the place, and decimating our entire wine supply sharing sea stories… well it just doesn’t get much better than that. And I feel that even though we are going to go back home to share in the birth of our second grandchild, and be able to see family and friends for the holidays, I am going to yearn for a big fat serving of eggs. I have been bitten. Addicted. Being on our boat, every day a new adventure or challenge, it’s what I’ve been waiting for all my life, and I didn’t even know it until now.  Both Marg and I hope the next 1500 miles are as good as the first. 

A bump in the road

Fall color on the Wacamaw River

Remnants of Irene

The good, the bad, and the ugly. That’s the latest synopsis of this voyage. Our journey started at Osprey Creek Marina. A beautiful ride down the Wacamaw River. We arrived in Charleston on Thursday, November the 3rd. What a glorious day and what a glorious city. It was 75 degrees when we arrived and we reunited with a couple of cruiser buddies from Chicago that we met in Oriental, NC a week before. In Charleston we became instant tourists. Marg and I and our Chicago friends walked the city and dined at 82 Queen, a great antebellum restaurant. We did the horse and buggy ride and saw the historic part of the city, and we toured historic homes. That was the Good part of the trip.

Homes on the Battery on the South
shore of Charleston

Marg at the farmer's market clutching
her corn

The horse and carriage tour of
historic Charleston. Pretty cool.

The Calhoun Mansion. Built in the
1800's with the proceeds of financing
the Civil War. North and South.

Write your own caption

We also had a vibration in the boat that we didn’t have before. What could it be?? When we landed at Charleston City Marina, we checked in with the dockmaster who called a boat tech to check it out. The following day, the tech declared that our rudder needed new bearings and we would have to haul out the boat to make the repairs. In addition, we learned that the parts would cost over $500 and the haul out would be $325. Then there was the labor. Plus, we had to take the boat 14 miles upstream to their boat yard before they could do anything. This was the bad part of the trip.

Making the best of it. Grilling steaks
on the boat in the cradle.

This is wrong. But it's alright.

So, on Monday, we drove the boat upstream, against the current, to the boat yard and had the boat pulled out of the water. The tech from Beneteau was there and after he ceremoniously shook the rudder, and  proclaimed it fit and not in need of new bearings.  BUT, he said, the vibration was coming from the folding prop, which WAS in need of new bearings. So here we sit, on the hard, waiting for the repairs to be made so we could be on our way. By the way, the repair kit for the prop was $700. We decided to have Janet and Bob ship our spare prop to us. We will use that one until we get to Florida and decide what we want to do. The spare prop will be here on Weds, the 9th. Hopefully, they will be able to install it and send us on our way. We are in an area that is nasty with tides and currents that limit the distances you can go. If they get us in the water by 3 pm tomorrow, we can go back downstream to Charleston City and anchor out. Then we can leave on the flood tide and make it to South Edisto River to anchor out on our way to Beaufort, SC (pronounce Bew-fort). This has been the ugly part of the trip.

We got an email today from our friends Nathalie and Andre. They arrived in Charleston today and will stay until Thursday. With some luck, we will reunite with them on Weds night or Thursday morning.