Home Again

We are back in Winchester after an exciting couple of weeks.

After a peaceful night anchored at Fishers Island, we continued to have gloomy skies but otherwise favorable conditions for our trip North. Our first post-Fisher’s stop was Cuttyhunk, one of my favorite way stations in New England. Cuttyhunk is the southernmost island in the Elizabeth Island chain, technically in Massachusetts, but worlds away from civilization. It can only be reached by private boat, mail boat or seaplane, and feels like an old-time summer colony, especially when the population swells from two dozen in the winter to nearly 200 when summer comes. There are no land services to speak of beyond the library, a small general store, and an outdoor pizza restaurant (run out of someone’s basement with six picnic tables beside a pond.) Inscrutably, however, there is an in-water raw-bar in the form of a Boston Whaler that cruises the mooring field at happy hour each night with four enthusiastic college-aged students on board shucking local oysters and selling them over the side to visiting boats. You can also call them on the marine radio (Channel 9) to order fresh shellfish.

Another long day of sailing took us through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown. Our friends Dennis and Liz Whittemore, and their daughter Corrine, sailed their new boat Panache to Provincetown to meet us. We had a great time, with the girls swimming off the boat each day and all of us exploring local shops, restaurants, bike trails and beaches.

Provincetown is a very unique place, a ménage of cultures which include a traditional Portugese fishing community, a century-old artists colony, and a gay summer community, complete with drag queens and local favorites the Bare Naked Laddies (modestly clad in miniscule briefs, cowboy boots and ten gallon hats) strutting their finery up and down Commercial Street on warm summer evenings. Somehow the mix seems to work, and the result is a charming community with great seafood, many galleries and a fun evening vibe.

After a great weekend both boats set out to return to Marblehead on Sunday, a sunny, bright day with perfect wind. Almost an hour out, however, we hit a fog bank and visibility dropped to near-zero in a matter of moments. Since we were close to a shipping lane, we quickly deployed the radar and while this enabled us to avoid oncoming traffic, we were soon separated from Panache. After a quick cell conversation, both ships decided to return to Provincetown. It took a couple of days to wait out the fog, but we were glad we did when we had a pleasantl sail to Marblehead later in the week.

It was wonderful to see Marblehead harbor again after almost a year away. As always, we were greeted by nearly 1,000 sailboats that call the harbor home, and after a little searching we soon found our new mooring, right next to Valiant, an early winner of the America’s Cup and the inspiration for the manufacturer of our boat to call its company Valiant Yachts. Nice neighborhood!

So, we are now back in Winchester. Our house seems enormous after ten months on our boat and things are certainly chaotic as we unpack both from Serendipity and our attic. Amelia has taken out every one of her toys to play with, allocating only a few minutes for each. Every time I stop in town I run into a friend or neighbor, often several – a far cry from many months dealing with strangers at every turn. While the sense of community is fantastic, it is also a little disorienting, and I wonder if we can give up our wandering ways.

Another Bite of the Big Apple

This past week found us back in New York City, moored once again at the 79th Street Boat Basin. We arrived here after a 36 hour sail directly from the C&D canal, with an early morning departure to sail down the Delaware River and skip over New Jersey.

The weather reports were clear when we left, but in the early evening, off Atlantic City, clouds began to gather until a thunderstorm system descended like a black hand over our boat. We’ve had bad weather before, but this was pretty frightening as night fell and a severe lightening storm raged overhead. I grew even more concerned after we heard a boat a few miles ahead of us, the Monica, make a series of panicked calls to the Coast Guard seeking to report their position in case they capsized. Luckily, Dave had the first night watch, and tethered in, while I tried to get a little sleep down below. After being thrown out of bed twice by the waves, things calmed down a lot, and by morning we had dry weather as we breezed into New York Harbor.

After recovering from our overnight, we had a chance to take advantage of all that NYC has to offer, getting together with friends for dinners and drinks, exploring museums with Amelia, taking walks in Central Park, running along the Hudson River and taking in an Amelia-approved Broadway show (Mary Poppins). It really was the perfect NYC long weekend, made even more fun by our location right in the heart of the Upper West Side.

Anxious to make miles towards home, we left early Tuesday morning and sailed down the Hudson, around the Battery and up the East River to Long Island Sound. We had a fantastic sailing day with strong winds and favorable currents, averaging over 7 knots, until the engine failed in the middle of Long Island Sound. After a little diagnosis, Dave determined that the boat was heeled over so far that, despite having a quarter tank of diesel, the engine intake was getting insufficient fuel. We refueled in Stamford, CT, and stayed overnight there, before continuing to Fishers Island today. And that is where we are, in a peaceful anchorage, ready for a quiet night before continuing north.

Back in Back Creek

We had a spectacular sail from St. Michaels to Annapolis and find ourselves, three weeks later, back in Back Creek (part of Annapolis where we spent November of last year). We’ve found that Annapolis is much livelier during the late spring and summer, definitely living up to it’s reputation as “America’s Sailing Capital.”

Soon after arriving here we were joined by our boating friends from Wyoming and spent a fun week together before their trip, sadly, came to an end. Together we had a chance to explore the restaurants of Annapolis, ranging from absolute dives (Dave’s choice – a Mexican café) to a fine French bistro (Tim’s choice and a real treat). Dave and Tim also took the kids into Washington to see the sights and to Baltimore for a return visit to the aquarium.

We have been docked at Jabin’s Yacht Yard, one of the largest boat yards on the East Coast. It is a very busy place, with boats constantly coming and going. We took advantage of our situation by having Serendipity hauled out for inspection (happy to see no damage from our 15 run-agrounds on the ICW) and some minor maintenance.

Our location in Annapolis also enabled me to return briefly to Boston twice. The first trip back was to attend my tenth Harvard Business School reunion. I co-chaired the event (an interesting job to do remotely over the past year) so had to be there to host. It was an incredibly fun four days of great events, with nearly 900 attendees, culminating in a spectacular gala at the Boston Public Library. I really enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with many classmates and old friends. I must admit it took me a full day of grooming appointments in Boston (hair cut, hair color, manicure, dentist, and dress alterations) to shake the salt off. The second trip was a brief visit for a training session at HBS; another fun opportunity to re-connect with colleagues. On both trips, it was a little strange being back in our big, empty house and walking the streets of our tiny town. It felt very odd after the wide open spaces we are used to, and gave me a little glimpse of some of the challenges we will likely face on our return.

Between trips, Dave, Amelia and I had a chance to do some more regional exploring. We rented a car and drove to Charlottsville, VA, so that we could see Monticello, Jefferson’s rural Virginia home. Touring his home (also his muse) gave us a chance to gain additional insight into this very interesting historical figure. We were also able to visit the University of Virginia (although we realize Amelia is a little young for college tours) and we drove back along Skyline Drive through the beautiful Shenandoah Mountains. After getting back, we also had an opportunity to spend some time with a former classmate, Logan Smith, and his family, who have taken up residence in Annapolis, and kindly shared their local pool and barbequeing prowess with us.

We are now waiting out some unfavorable weather, but expect to say goodbye to Annapolis tomorrow morning at 5:00 am as we sail out of Back Creek and continue up the Chesapeake Bay toward home.

Lovely St. Michaels, MD

We have had this spectacular view of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum from our boat for the past week. The museum, which features a variety of Chesapeake marine heritage exhibits including boatbuilding, lighthouse tending, fishing, crabbing and oystering, is located in lovely St. Michaels Maryland on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. St. Michaels, a beautiful little town with many cute shops and restaurants, is also known as “the town that fooled the British.” During the revolutionary war, town residents hung lanterns from the treetops and tops of masts and then blacked out town lights, tricking the British into overshooting the town during a nighttime bombardment. Aiming at the treetops, the British missed the town completely, except for one wayward cannonball which is still lodged in a historic building here.

When we arrived mid week, the harbor and town were almost empty and we were able to anchor with only a few other boats in a well-protected inner harbor close to the museum. Then the Memorial Day weekend arrived and the harbor overflowed with arriving boats and people. As the anchorage filled with boats quickly and overflowed into several less-protected anchorages nearby on the Miles River, we became more acquainted with the politics of anchoring.

Since anchoring is free and dock space in the St. Michaels marinas is about $130/night for a boat our size (more for larger boats), many boaters prefer to anchor in the harbor and go ashore via dingy. Accordingly, space in our well-protected anchorage was highly desirable and attracted a seemingly endless stream boats looking for room to anchor. Some with anchoring experience realized there was no more room to anchor safely but others were anxious to get to town and didn’t consider the consequences. From a the friendly people on a nearby sailboat, we learned about doing the “Chicken Dance” on the bow of our boat (standing up with a stern expression and hands on hips with elbows out and waving) to ward off boats that try to anchor too close. When the Chicken Dance failed to work, the next step was to loudly say things like “You’re NOT thinking of anchoring there are you?” and then to getting the bumpers out to ward off the inevitable collisions with other boats swinging at anchor.

We only experienced one collision, which was more comical than damaging. The boat in question had an odd anchoring technique (careening around the anchorage rapidly in reverse), bypassed us, and then immediately ran hard aground, reversed again and hit another boat and then ours. Observing their lack of experience, we had dangled large bumpers and managed to avert serious damage when they hit us. They, in the meantime, had hung out a teabag-sized bumper which was useless. Red faced, they moved on to a marina where the dockhands were able to help them properly secure their boat.

Sailing in the Chesapeake Bay has been truly wonderful, with great winds, scenic shores and wonderful places to visit. It is also incredibly popular, and it is fun to watch the wide array of boats and ships that ply the waters here. We look forward to more sailing and exploring in the Chesapeake over the next few weeks before continuing our adventure north toward New England.

Hanging out in the Chesapeake

One of the last things to do before leaving “the Ditch” near Portsmouth Virginia is pass through some locks which connect the higher-level Chesapeake Bay waters with the lower-level ICW. While holding our boat’s dock lines in the lock and waiting for the water to rise, I noticed a sign with mileages to various destinations including “Jacksonville Florida, 750 miles” and “Boston, Massachusetts - 720 miles”. This drove home the fact that we are, in fact, well over halfway home.

We’ve spent the past two weeks hanging out in the lower Chesapeake Bay, visiting Norfolk Virginia for a few days (a nice surprise, I expected a town which was primarily industrial but it turned out to have a lot of interesting neighborhoods and history). We rented a car and visited Colonial Williamsburg, which is a town-sized living history museum, did some sailing on the Chesapeake and anchored for three days in lovely, quiet, Mobjack Bay. With nowhere to land our dingy nearby (all of the shorefront is privately owned), a local homeowner took pity on me and invited me to use his dock so that I could come ashore for a run. He then suggested a running loop which was nearly three times as long as the “about three miles” he said it was, but I guess he felt guilty for his misdirection because he circled twice in his pickup truck to make sure I was ok. The countryside in this part of Virginia – which I now know rather intimately – is lovely, comprised of historic plantations, pastoral horse farms and quiet roads.

We are now in the delightful town of Urbanna, Virginia, population 600, which pretty much shuts down except on weekends, so things have been very quiet. This has not been a problem, since driving rain and high winds have kept us boat bound for two days. Yesterday we braved the elements at Amelia’s insistence to go out for pizza and celebrate Mother’s Day. This turned out to be an enormous mistake because, as we ate our pizza, we watched through the window to see a hurricane level storm develop. The proprietor was kind enough to drive us back to our marina but we still got thoroughly soaked. We all have a little cabin fever and are looking forward to the storm moving on tomorrow so that we can spend time outside our boat and even go somewhere.

We plan to continue exploring the Chesapeake over the next few weeks including visits to Oxford, Cambridge and St. Michaels on the eastern shore before visiting Annapolis at the end of the month. Along the way, we hope to rendezvous with our boating friends from Wyoming, who plan to explore some of the same waters for the month of May.

"Nothing but fun. . ."

Earlier this week, cruising up the ICW through Myrtle Beach NC, we gave Amelia a choice about where we should stop and spend the night. She could select between two places where we had stayed on our way south: the nice resort with the extensive pool complex or the outlet mall with a low amenity dock. To our great surprise, she chose the outlet mall over the pool and when we asked why, she told us that she remembered it and it was “nothing but fun.”

She was right, of course. There we had a chance to visit a traveling zoo with baby tigers, walk the bridge across an alligator-infested swamp, ride the flying horses and stop for pizza and then ice cream. From a six year old’s perspective, a perfect afternoon.

In a way, she is right about our entire trip as well. What we thought would be a family adventure with a little pina-coloda-on-the-beach thrown in has actually turned out to be more like an extended vacation, with all the good and bad of a long family road trip. Our boat is our station wagon, the ICW is Route 66, and the many roadside attractions are just along the waterfront.

We are now in Morehead City, NC, just outside Beaufort (pronounced “Bow-fort” unlike its South Carolina cousin Beaufort “Bew-fort”). We have been told by fellow boaters that the Bridge Tender in Beaufort, SC, who opens the bridge for passing boats, will not respond to boats that call on the radio until the correct pronunciation is used. We didn’t have a problem so we must have done it right.

Today, we are on our way to a beautiful little town on the Pamlico Sound called Oriental, NC, where we are looking forward to improving our docking score from the “judges” on the Bean’s front porch. We may even be featured on the Town's Harbor Webcam at www.towndock.net.

Doing the Charleston

Charleston is full of history, having played significant roles in both the American Revolution and Civil War. The Civil War (also known locally as “The War Between the States” or “The War of Northern Aggression” to some) started here in Charleston when the Confederate troops attacked the Union troops at Fort Sumter and took over the fort. They held the fort for most of the war, thereby controlling access to Charleston harbor, then the richest port in the US. Amelia and Harmony, her friend from Wyoming, had a great time last week exploring Fort Sumter and seeing a reenactment of Confederate rifle tactics.

The next day, we visited a preserved plantation and learned about the planter economy in South Carolina and why it led to pressure for southern succession. At the time of the Civil War, seven of the ten richest Americans were South Carolina plantation owners. By the end of the war, most of the plantation owners’ wealth had been lost. Charleston has been a wonderful classroom for learning about history, geography, economics and natural history. We have taken advantage of the many opportunities to interest and engage our daughter, and even learn a little ourselves in process. One of the dockhands who moonlights here at the Charlestown Maritime Center, where we have been docked for over three weeks, is also a professional historian and re-enactor. Several times Amelia has prepared lists of questions for him (Why did the British wear red coats? What did the King think about the Declaration of Independence? Why was it against the law for slaves to go to school?) which he patiently answered.

Charleston is also a really fun town with beautiful restored homes and gardens, fantastic restaurants and wonderful harbor views. We’ve had a chance to see a lot of it during our three weeks. Our marina is well located, just steps from the aquarium (we bough a membership and have gone many times) and a short walk from downtown and the historic district. The lawn adjoining our marina is also used as a special events space, so there is a wedding or event here nearly every weekend evening. This is a little noisy, but means that we’ve also been able to sample the best of local bands from the privacy of our boat. Amelia has taken to dancing on deck to the ones she likes best. Earlier this week, guests at a rehearsal dinner at our marina – the bride was from Charleston and the groom from New Jersey -- were given sweatshirts that read either “North” or “South” in big block letters. The party proceeded to have a North vs. South baseball game. So I guess that with a little time and perspective even historic conflicts can be put aside.

We were thrilled when our friends from Wyoming sailed directly from the Bahamas (three days and two nights!) to join us for a week, and their company made our time here even more fun. We rented cars and all went to Savannah, another great southern city, for an overnight visit. Harmony and Amelia had a great time exploring, visiting the aquarium together and having sleepovers. One of Charleston’s more practical attractions has been its well served airport, enabling me to easily fly home to Canada for a few days to help out with my folks. My dad is recovering well; my mother is still in the hospital and likely to remain there for some time.

We arrived in Charleston after a slow slog up the ICW from Vero Beach in Florida, punctuated by a short visit to Ferdinanda Beach (it’s claim to historic significance is that the town was run by pirates for several decades) and a magical visit to Cumberland Island, a beautiful barrier island accessible only by boat and preserved as a national park. The island has many armadillos and herds of beautiful wild horses, and we had the opportunity to get close enough to get a good look as we hiked on the beach.

This week is race week in Charleston, and also the week of the local in-water boat show. There are many beautiful sailboats racing in the harbor daily, and watching them sail has made us yearn to be underway. We are a little sad to leave beautiful Charleston, but look forward to the next stage of our adventure as we continue our trek north.

"There must be a Starbucks around here somewhere..."

Yesterday, in the middle of a swamp, I uttered those fateful words. But it must have been wishful thinking because, close as we were to civilization, we could not have been practically and metaphorically further from Starbucks without leaving the country. In fact, we’d have to go pretty far afield to get further than three day’s travel (our current distance) from a Starbucks since. in addition to over 11.000 US stores (all 50 states plus the District of Columbia), they operate nearly 4,600 international units in locations as far flung as Quatar, Oman and Peru.

Luckily, I had the foresight to stock up on ground coffee at the Starbucks in Palm Beach before we left for the Bahamas (although there are certainly Starbucks stores there), where I purchased ten pounds bag by bag. The baristas were delighted – they told me there were IPODs to be won by the employees at the locations which sold the most ground coffee over the weekend, and their enthusiasm was only slightly dampened when I told them that they should give me a free pound and a free latte as consideration for my contribution to their efforts.

But even my bulk purchases have not been enough to save the company’s stock price in the wake of my departure from Winchester with its two conveniently-located Starbucks units. If you’ve been following the financial press, you know that the analysts blame overexpansion and a loss of corporate focus. But if you want to act on actual forward-looking information, you should time your stock purchases around our expected return in late June. (We’ve checked with the SEC and they’ve confirmed that information on consumer behavior is not considered insider information, so you should be safe. However, please consult your own financial advisor before taking action.)

In the meantime, my little stock of ground coffee has dwindled to less than half a bag, which means that it is time to move on. We’re tracking coffee consumption against weather, winds and tides to choose a prudent departure from southern Georgia to our planned stop in Charleston SC, home to six (yes six!) different Starbucks shops. Count on Starbucks’ stock price to be heading north along with our family sometime very soon.

Back in the USA

On the back of our fold-down dining table is a map of the East Coast and Amelia has been using a china marker to update it with our course traveled each passage. This has been a great geography lesson for her and a way for her to participate in our navigation.

We’re now back in Florida and once again are at a mooring in Vero Beach ("Velcro Beach"). Our little marina is very relaxing with easy access to the beach and town. Several boats in the marina stopped on their way south last fall and still haven’t left. Vero Beach does not even show up in the guide books, which is surprising considering it is a pretty large town (population 18,000). Perhaps that is how it maintains its laid back vibe. The town is most famous as the summer home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and also boasts a great art museum and wonderful beaches and later this spring will be a prime location for egg-laying sea turtles.

We had a great time in the Bahamas but needed to cut our visit short since health issues with my parents required me to be accessible by phone and email (no guarantee of either in most parts of the Bahamas) and within reasonable range of an airport. So, another overnight sail from Grand Bahama Island brought us back to Florida, and then I left for a short trip to Canada. Dave and Amelia had a nice time during my absence making many new friends and exploring the area.

Amelia has developed an interest in star gazing and as I write this I can spot her little legs dangling from a hatch as she sits on deck and tries to puzzle out the constellations. She says that she found The Archer (Orion) and it points east. I wonder if she can identify the North Star, since before long we will need to start sailing in that direction, starting a slow return home.

Fish Story

Ten miles out of Lucaya, on the south side of Grand Bahama Island, I caught the fish of my dreams - a beautiful Mahi Mahi larger than Amelia. It put up a truly spectacular fight jumping out of the water and swimming in circles while being towed behind the boat until finally it tired (or so we thought). So we stopped the boat, reeled it in, took a picture and tried to catch it in the net. Suddenly it came back to life, snapped the leader and slowly swam away.

Ever since our electrician in Winchester loaned us a fishing rod when he learned about our winter sabbatical plans to sail to the Bahamas, Dave has been skeptical. At Gibson Island, when Bruce loaned us a net and a lure guaranteed to catch Rockfish, Dave was skeptical. In Lucaya, when I finally found a place to buy frozen squid for bait, Dave was skeptical. When the fish bit and started jumping out of the water behind the boat Dave immediately ran to get the camera and became enthusiastic about fishing.

According to my recently acquired fishing guide "Sport Fish of the Atlantic" Mahi Mahi, also known as Dorado or Dolphinfish, can grow to weigh more than 80 pounds, have excellent food value and rank among the very best in game quality with spectacular jumps and dogged stubbornness. Well this fish was certainly strong and stubborn - and too large to get into the net anyway - so I am glad that it got away.

So thank you to everyone who encouraged me to pursue my fishing goals on this trip. This one made it all worthwhile.

Driving To The Beach

Amelia has become very good at driving our dingy (which we have named "Dipity"). Last week she motored us through the Lucaya canals on Grand Bahama Island and out an ocean inlet. Just outside the inlet, we drove to a beautiful white-sand beach where we swam and played in the surf with friends. The dingy is our "car" for getting around and exploring whenever the boat is at anchor or in a marina.

Lucaya has an extensive network of deep-water canals that were dug into the limestone structure of the island to provide inland boat access to resorts and home sites. Several inlets connect the canals to the ocean. While exploring in our dingy, we have been surprised by the amount of vacant land adjacent to these canals. In many places, it appears that these vacant sites once had houses or resorts, which appear to have been damaged and abandoned or destroyed by hurricanes in years past. Given the low utilization rate in the marinas that we have visited, current economics don't appear to justify intensive building (or re-building) efforts on these sites. While we look at these vacant sites, we also see newly-developed single-family-home lots in other island locations for sale at over $1 million dollars per lot (house construction extra). There is clearly something about the local economy that we don't understand.

In the little resort marina where we are currently docked, there is a newly constructed home for sale for $12 million. It has an unusual boathouse design, where the ground floor is a boathouse allowing a Hinckley Picnic Boat (included in the price) to enter and be lifted to the second floor where it can be admired from the living quarters. A separate guesthouse/caretaker's cottage is also included. The home is cute but if we had an extra $12 million to spend (and we don't, having recently spent our last 12 extra large on boat parts), I think we would look for our own island. In doing so, we would follow in the footsteps of local celebrities, including Johnny Depp, who are recent Bahamas island buyers. So, I guess there really are pirates in the Caribbean...

Adventures in Paradise

While we watch the winter weather reports for northern climes, we are enjoying the pleasant Bahamas weather while swimming, snorkeling, reading, eating, sleeping (and a little home schooling), and then getting up the next day to do it all over again. This will probably get old in a few weeks but, for now, it feels great.

We are currently in a pleasant marina in Lucaya, which is on the south side of Grand Bahama Island, and have been taking advantage of our time here in a relatively developed area to restock and recharge. One great advantage of being here has been the opportunity to spend more time with our friends from Wyoming. Their daughter, Harmony, and Amelia have been spending most days together and have also had rotating sleepovers – a nice break for the parents. We’ve had a chance to explore some beautiful beaches here, as well as to kick around town. Our marina is particularly nice, with great lap and kid’s pools, beautiful grounds and a picnic area. There is also a shuttle boat to the Lucaya town center, which has numerous restaurants and bars, a host of small shops and a bandstand which features local music on the weekends. Earlier this week Amelia and Harmony stayed up far too late eating ice cream and dancing to a local beat. Harmony has been a great influence on Amelia, encouraging her to be more serious about her schoolwork and contributing her second-grader’s perspective on everything from kite flying to art.

Last week when we went out to dinner with a couple of families, and the most experienced cruiser there posed an interesting question: “What have you learned on your trip so far?” It was interesting to reflect on this, and I think that by far the most rewarding thing has been getting to know our daughter so well. It has also been an opportunity for Dave and me to connect and cooperate nearly full time. Back in Winchester, with two demanding careers and a full schedule of school and activities for Amelia, it seems that we spent much more time handing off Amelia and moving between planned events than we spent together as a family. Now, for better or worse, we need to engage on issues as small as how we keep our small living space habitable and as large as how we safely manage our passages. While the challenge of living together in such intimate and immediate circumstances isn’t trivial, the benefits are enormous.

I’ve also been experimenting with local cuisine. Earlier this week, we went to a fish market, which had little to offer except conch (pronounced “Konk”), a staple in the local diet. I ordered some, and also received some preparation tips. The women weighing the fish slyly mentioned that conch is especially good “for the man”, referring to its reputation for enhancing virility, and laughed when I then asked for another pound. So far, I’ve experimented with making conch salad (a spicy ceviche) and conch chowder, all with excellent results.

Our plans for later this week are to sail about 60 miles to the southeast to a protected anchorage in the Berry Islands, provided the winds turn to the southwest as predicted. The prevailing winds blow quite strongly from the east or southeast and generate substantial waves in the open areas. As a result, to sail with any degree of comfort to the southeast, we have to wait for weather fronts to pass through causing the winds to turn to the west or north. This only occurs for a day or two out of every ten days and we plan to take advantage of the next weather window to travel southeast to the Berry Islands. Several other boats in this marina are waiting for the same weather conditions and the talk dockside each morning revolves around the latest weather predictions (as well as the usual complaints about boat equipment breakdowns and repairs). There is a popular saying in the boating community that cruising on a sailboat is just “repairing your boat in interesting places.” We have been fortunate in that regard and are pleased to report that, since our six-week delay in Annapolis, we have had very little breakdown and repair experience. We hope that this good fortune continues.

Bahamas Sunrise

Well, finally!

After a long night at sea, the sun appeared slowly over the eastern horizon (I love the 6:00-to-8:00 am watch) and the Bahamas came into view. Once we turned east from Florida’s east coast to cross the Gulf Stream (which runs north at more than three miles per hour between Florida and the Bahamas), we had a great sail on a beam reach with a following sea all the way to West End on Grand Bahama Island. The wisdom of our decision to sail overnight in order to arrive in the Bahamas and enter an unfamiliar port during daylight was reinforced at 3:00 AM the next morning when a sailboat ran up on the rocks and was destroyed while attempting to enter the narrow West End channel to our marina in the dark. Fortunately the crew was able to get ashore but the boat was a total loss.

So we are snug in a beautiful resort marina and waiting out the passage of a cold front (with thunderstorms and 30-knot northerly winds) while enjoying the swimming pool and warm turquoise Bahamian waters. This marina has been recently upgraded as part of the early stages of an ambitious plan to develop a large mixed-use water-oriented community on the West End with grand canals, hotels, homes with boat docks, condominiums, retail, etc. From what we hear, the Bahamas have experienced the beginnings of numerous large-scale developments but are suffering from low occupancies and slow sales due to the US economic downturn and credit issues as well as high fuel costs for the large 50-to-90-foot sport fishing boats that bring free-spending tourists from Florida. A typical refueling for them is 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel while we have burned only 10 gallons since refueling in West Palm Beach. Dave says that we have a responsibility to the local economy to make up the difference by drinking Margaritas (He’s just joking I hope!).

One of the high points of stopping for a few days here has been the opportunity to re-connect with another cruising family from Wyoming on a similar adventure with their two children. We had enjoyed the opportunity to socialize with them at a couple of earlier stops. Their 7-year-old daughter and Amelia have become instant best friends, sharing pool time, snorkeling practice, a sleepover and stories and generally bossing each other around. Dave and I are also really enjoying some fun adult time with a couple with whom we have a lot in common.

The Bahamas has an interesting history. It is an island chain that stretches over 600 miles and includes 1,700 islands and 2,000 cays, many of which are remote and accessible only by private boat. Columbus initially set foot here in 1492, and in less than 25 years the 40,000-strong population of native Lucayans was gone. The islands were then ignored by explorers of many nations in favor of more treasure-rich locations because of its treacherous shoals and reefs, lack of gold, and unfavorable conditions for agriculture. In those days, the islands were so little regarded that, in 1629, King Charles I of England granted the islands to his Attorney General as a throw-away in a package that included the Carolinas. The archipelago became a haven for settlers fleeing religious persecution, pirates and wreckers. In 1718 it became a British Colony and the new governor cleaned things up (in the process establishing the national motto Expulsis Piratis – Restituta Commercia – expel the pirates and restore commerce.) During the next two hundred years, the islands had a boom and bust economy with booms fueled by European wars (privateering), the American Civil War (blockade running), and later prohibition. 1n 1973, the Bahamas became independent from England and the economy today is stable, fueled primarily by tourism and offshore banking.

So, we have been looking at the Bahamas charts and are overwhelmed by the variety of fascinating places that we could visit in this beautiful island chain. It seems that we could easily spend a year rather than the few weeks that we now have to explore. We plan to make some choices while waiting out the current weather front, and look to forward to enjoying the islands before we start the trek north.

Sticky South Florida

Now that we are in sunny southern Florida, time seems to stand still. After moving so fast to get here, we have finally slowed down. One motivation is the fantastic weather and beautiful beaches, the other is exhaustion: When we planned our trip, I don’t think either of us had anticipated the mental and physical toll of spending each night route planning, each day sailing or motoring through unforgiving waters for 10+ hours and then arriving in an unfamiliar port each night. Now, it is time to slow down and smell the bougainvillea.

Earlier this week, we stayed for several days at a mooring in Vero Beach, “Velcro Beach” to in-the-know boaters. Dave had a chance to perform some long-delayed boat maintenance and Amelia and I spent time kicking around the beach, local library and playground. Then, we took a short hop (including some ICW sailing!) to our present destination of Stuart, Florida. We are now on a mooring on the St. Lucie River and exploring Stuart’s many attractions including a jazz festival that starts this weekend.

Places like Vero and Stuart seem to be havens for some of the more hard-bitten cruising types. When we arrived on Wednesday we had a chance to experience the weekly “sunset celebration” at the marina here – a dockside cocktail hour/pot luck where many sea stories were traded. It made us feel pretty green, as many of the couples (and they were all couples, mostly retired), had made an ICW-Bahamas trip a yearly migration. In fact, one sailor was trading stories about his fourth world sailing circumnavigation. I don’t think either plan is in the future for us, but we certainly sponged up their advice.

It has been interesting meeting the many different characters who choose to take a little time out and live on a sailboat, either for an extended vacation or as part of a long-term plan. We were expecting to meet a lot more families. Our late departure, however, seems to have put us behind schedule to meet up with the family cruising culture that everyone told us we would find. We did have a chance to spend a couple of days in Saint Augustine with a terrific family from Wyoming whose daughter is a little older than Amelia. Like us, they were delayed by mechanical issues and rushing south. The girls had a great time together and we plan to connect with them again in West Palm Beach, our next stop.

In addition to human encounters, we’ve had a chance to experience a lot of wildlife. We mentioned the whales we saw earlier, and we continue to see a fantastic array of birds. We encounter dolphins almost daily. In Vero, I had a chance to spend time in close proximity to an entire pod during an early morning kayak ride. And, of course, there are the alligators…

A Little Magic

Candidly, as pragmatic parents, we are not above bribing our daughter to get what we want. The bribe required to motivate her to leave all of her friends and toys in Winchester and hang out 24/7 for over six months with her parents on a small boat needed to be a big one. Ultimately we promised her a trip to Disney World. Having forgotten our promise, a month before we started our trip we put a big map of the east coast up in the kitchen so that she could get excited about our many potential ports of call. Amelia responded by putting one big red sticker on the map, squarely on Orlando.

We thought that her interest might fade with exposure to so many other destinations and activities over the past few months but, the moment we crossed the Florida border, Amelia reminded us: “Now we can go to Disney World!”

So last weekend we made good on our promise, parked the boat in a marina, rented a car, and drove to Orlando. We discovered that The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS - down more than $1.00 per share since we left) is brilliant at extracting maximum dollars from its guests at every turn while still making us feel like we have been sprinkled with fairy dust. We did have a lot of fun – we checked into the Swan Hotel and enjoyed the Magic Kingdom. Amelia got her princess fix (including dinner at Cinderella’s castle), Dave had an opportunity to chill out without boat obligations and I enjoyed the opportunity to sleep in a queen-sized “heavenly” bed and swim early morning laps in the hotel pool.

Having finally made good on our promise, we are back in Saint Augustine preparing to continue South and planning a hop to the Bahamas. We hope that our newest stuffed toy passenger – Minnie Mouse – has her passport ready.

Finally Florida

We were getting a little tired of cold weather after three nights below freezing in Beaufort SC. So, despite Beaufort’s manifold attractions, we decided to take a run for it and get to Florida as soon as possible. It sounds a little easier than it is – we had ice in the cockpit when we left Beaufort in the early morning on Friday to take advantage of favorable tides and winds and then sailed 36 straight hours, bypassing all of Georgia to rejoin the ICW at Jacksonville and end up in St. Augustine, Florida late Saturday afternoon.

Thirty-six straight hours of sailing requires sailing overnight, and that means that Dave and I rotated two-hour watch shifts all night and both days. I can personally attest to the ugliness of the 2:30 am to 4:30 am shift. It was pretty lonely out there – only a couple of passing boats far away, and a few very distant lights on shore.

We rejoined the ICW by entering the St. Johns River inlet at dawn, and had an extremely rare treat – just beside our boat we spotted a northern right whale. These whales are nearly extinct – only 350 are thought to exist in the Atlantic. Soon after we spotted him, the radio was abuzz with the coast guard and others warning all to be on the lookout and very careful.

We are now relaxing in St. Augustine, which is one of the oldest settlements in the U.S., having been settled by the Spanish in 1565. Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon believed that he found the fountain of youth here and the site of his discovery is now an archeological dig and tourist site. There is a well preserved fort – the Castillo de San Marcos – which we toured today. Here’ s a picture of us on the ramparts. The town has a strong Spanish heritage and there are numerous other attractions, which we hope to explore tomorrow before wending our way south.

Now that we’ve crossed the border into Florida, Amelia has become very excited about Disney World. Of course, this has been the major attraction of our trip for her all along. We are doing a little planning now, and hope to park the boat so that we can fit in a short Disney excursion. In the meantime, we’re enjoying the warm Florida sun.

Inside Out

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One of the great dilemmas of cruising south is deciding whether to stay “inside” in The Ditch (follow the inland ICW) or go “outside” (sailing in the open ocean). When we meet other sailors at marinas along the way, one of the first things they ask about our next leg is whether we plan to be “inside” or “outside.” “Outside” is the tough-guy choice and, if Dave’s vote prevailed, we’d be on the ocean the entire time.

Sailing in the Southeast is a little more complicated than sailing in the Northeast, where there are rocky shores, scores of protected harbors and no inland alternatives. It seems that the entire southeastern US coastline is one big shoal close to shore, with prevalent and dangerous shallow areas and only a few, poorly-spaced, sometimes-treacherous inlets. In the southeast, a decision to go “outside” requires careful planning, good weather and, in some cases, a willingness to sail overnight or more to reach the next navigable harbor. Our caution here is reinforced by hearing over the radio from coast guard broadcasts about a couple of boats missing at sea en route to Florida.

The downsides of staying “inside” are the near-constant motoring (vs. sailing), the time required to follow the winding path of the ICW, delays while waiting for bridges to open, and the anxiety of navigating and sometimes running aground on the occasional unexpected shallows and shoaled areas. We’ve been lucky/smart about monitoring the tides and bridge opening schedules to minimize problems, but the experience of having run aground multiple times (as everyone seems to do) continues to daunt us. The upsides of being “inside” are calm and more predictable waters and the ability to access many beautiful stopping points.

Yesterday, taking advantage of favorable distance and weather, we decided to shake out the sails for the first time since the Chesapeake and take an ocean passage from Charleston to Beaufort SC. This required us to leave Charleston at 5:00 am, well before sunrise, and navigate Charleston Harbor's busy shipping channel in the dark. Once the sun was up and we could see our surroundings, however, we had a beautiful day of sailing. It was a little bouncy at sea and we seem to have lost our sea legs somewhere in The Ditch so Amelia was pretty seasick (although in good spirits throughout). We made fantastic time, averaging nearly 8 knots, enabling us to just catch the last bridge opening into Beaufort before dark. We celebrated New Year’s Eve here and, because we had been awake and traveling since before 5:00 am, settled in well before midnight.

Beaufort is another beautifully preserved southern town, recognizable from its starring role in many movies including Forrest Gump. There is a lot to do here, a terrific waterfront park, and numerous dining options, as well as historic district we plan to explore today during a brief stop. Then, as we continue south, we will try to make good decisions about “inside” or “outside” as we proceed through Georgia towards the Florida coast.