2014 - Summer Adventures

May, 2014 – Summer 2014

 

We spent this past winter (2013/2014) going back and forth between our home in Jupiter and the boat.  Our D-dock buddies at Sunset Bay Marina for the winter season were Doug and Barb on Tropical Breeze.  We were stern to stern, so it was easy for them to remind us daily at 5pm (sometimes earlier) that we needed to stop working on the boat and start happy hour!  They were a true inspiration to us and helped us with our decision to sell the house and liberate ourselves.  We had 2 garage sales, an estate sale and made many trips dropping the rest of our stuff off to charity organizations around Jupiter.  The garage was set up like a Five and Dime Store – so funny.  One can accumulate many “dust collectors” over 34 years of marriage!

 

We closed the sale of our home on May 8^th, and we never looked back.   It was not an easy decision, as we put much money and energy into rehabbing the entire house.  We thought it was going to be our “forever” home.  It would have been had the “sailing” bug not bitten us.

So we had to let our Shirley Drive dirt home go (above) for our once in a lifetime adventure on the water (below).

Peregrine

July, 2014 – October 22, 2014

We moved Peregrine to Brunswick, Georgia for the remainder of the summer.  Two reasons: closer to the kids in Atlanta and HURRICANES.  The East River in Brunswick was used by our military as a hurricane hole for their ships.  Last hurricane to hit this area was over 100 years ago.  Sounded like a safe place to us.  We left Stuart on July 24^th and arrived in Brunswick July 28^th.  We did our first overnight run by ourselves from Cape Canaveral to Fernandina Beach.  We ran about 5 miles off shore so we could still see the lights on shore.  Two hour shifts throughout the night seemed to work out great for us.   We hit one large lightning storm off the Cape.  The radar showed a large solid area of red heading from the west to the east.  The black clouds and lightning were all over us rather quickly, so there was no going around it.  We increased our speed and headed through the skinniest part according to the radar.  Just as we got to the front edge of the storm, we noticed a “parting of the red” on the radar screen, giving us a nice little path to sneak through.  After looking at this picture, you can understand why I now call Steve “Moses”.

 

RADAR Image

For those of you not familiar with radar, the little black icon in the middle of all that red (the storm) is our boat.  All in all it was a great run for us.  We saw lots of dolphins, turtles and flying fish.

While in Brunswick we visited several times with the kids, and took a trip up to North Carolina to see my dad.  While back at the boat, we did some much needed maintenance work on Peregrine.  We reworked the propane gas lines, replaced a water line to the galley sink, replaced port and starboard engine mounts, installed new engine starter switches, replaced starboard bilge pump, rebuilt the Yamaha carburetor on the dinghy, installed new Force-10 oven, etc., etc.  Don’t let anyone tell you that owning a boat is a piece of cake.  It is a lot of work – but soooooo worth it!

Brunswick Landing Marina is a very nice marina tucked up in the East River.  They have a brand new Yacht Club, floating docks and are conveniently located about 4.5 hours from our grandchildren! 

 

Marina clubhouse - Waiting on friends to join us for happy hour and a game of Sequence

 

This cute little critter I caught in my plastic bowl is a Cannonball Jellyfish, also known as a Cabbage Head Jellyfish.  Its dome shaped bell can reach 10” in diameter.  They are common on the southeastern coast of the U.S, and are extremely abundant in the summer and fall months.  We were entertained by the hours on the back steps of Peregrine, while hundreds of them pulsated around until they ran into something, then they would just start in a different direction.  Some of them are small enough to fit in the A/C water intake valves of our boats.  So everyone is checking their A/C filters frequently.  Some boaters get very mad about them being here, and I don’t hesitate to remind them that Cannonball Jellies are the main source of food for the leatherback turtles, and it is us who have invaded their territory.  I’m sure I’ve aggravated a few folks with my “pro wild life” stance.

Any free time (from boat maintenance) in Brunswick was spent exploring Amelia, Jekyll and St. Simons Islands.  We still had our off road bikes, so we put them to good use.  The setting was great with beautiful large oak trees dripping in Spanish moss - lots of history here.

Susan

 

 

Our biggest disappointment was the “brown water” at the beach.  We weren’t used to that!  It just made us more anxious to get to the Bahamas.  The good news was the beaches were mostly deserted.  These pics are from the south end of Jekyll.  We saw one other couple the entire trip down the beach (about 2 miles).



Steve

Susan

This structure sticking out of the sand appeared to be a very old, mostly buried boat.  These inlets can get a little tricky up here, and without good navigation tools, I guess this is what happens.  The body of water in the background is the St. Andrews Sound between Cumberland and Jekyll Islands. 

Driftwood beach is located on the northern end of Jekyll Island.  The landscape made for interesting photos, but I have to admit, we were not impressed overall.  It’s got to be because of that “brown” ocean water again.  I guess we are just spoiled!  We like our clear water.  It was fun to visit and the photos are neat, but we probably won’t go back. 

Steve

Susan

 This is Fort Clinch State Park (below) on the Northern tip of Amelia Island. 



Satellite view  (We cheated, and pulled this photo off the internet)

Fort Clinch overlooks the St. Mary’s Inlet and played a vital part in the Civil War.  Construction on the fort began in 1847, and was a safe haven for blockade runners during the Civil War.    It was briefly occupied by the Confederate forces.  Then it was recaptured by Federal troops in early 1862, and became the base of Union operations in the area throughout the Civil War.  The fort was also used in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, but was abandoned until the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) restored it in the 1930’s.

October 24, 2014

It’s starting to cool off, so time to drop the dock lines and head south.  The ocean was a little kicked up, so we decided to head down the ICW.  It was like “old home week”.  We stopped in all the same places that we had stopped on our way down from Baltimore.  First stop, Fernandina Beach, then on to St. Augustine, Daytona, Cocoa Beach, Fort Pierce and finally Stuart on October 29^th.  We would be tied to "A" dock in Sunset Bay Marina until it was time for the Bahamas.

Sunset overlooking the mooring field at Sunset Bay Marina.  Not a bad place to hang out