1000 miles at 6.8 knots

Doug on Gillaen said it best " it's like driving a riding lawnmower from Virginia to Florida". There is never a dull moment in the Intracoastal Waterway, just when you are cruising along enjoying a part of the US only few get to see something entertaining always and WILL happen!
We left Ft Pierce buddying with our good friends Dwayne and Linda on SeaVeyor and anchored in Cocoa and then again in Daytona before making a two night stop in Saint Augustine. We had a great time traveling, mostly sailing or motor sailing when the winds were light. Our sailing skills have vastly improved as we took all the bridges under sail and negotiated the sometimes tight and narrow channels with barges, tugboats, and just plain sea monsters coming at us and forcing us into tight quarters. This was not even on the menu when we were headed south in November. We dropped the hook (Delta Don)in front of the first structure in the Uninted States, the Spanish fort in St Augustine and felt historic as Delta Don grabbed the anchor ground that many explorers for the last 500 years have used as well. We then blew our entire eat out budget for the whole trip in two days, but it was worth it. Dwayne and Linda are great traveling companions and touring the oldest city with them was a ball. The next day we left Florida in the rear view and anchored by Cumberland island GA. The Girls rowed the Blond to shore and explored the island while Duayne and I Fixed SeaVeayor's generator. We then got on our "riding lawnmowers and continued north, throughout the journey, we would loose Seaveyor for a day or two or maybe a week, just to cross wakes and share an anchorage and travel time again. One day in Georgia SeaVeyor had passed us (they always do) and called back on the radio "Godspeed, it gets real skinny (shallow) up here". We approached slowly and sure enough we found the bottom-four times. As I slipped Godspeed off the bottom and back into deeper waters again, it was clear we would have to wait a couple of hours for the tide to come up enough to transit this spot, so we sent Delta Don down and went fishing. There is one little thing, or hundreds of little things that were really beginning to bug us: Greenheads, horseflies, biting flies. They were swarming under the bimini, but we had some bug spray and that kept them at bay pretty good. About that time, a sailboat came rumbling on by and I held up our handheld radio and motioned for them to talk to us. They did not get their act together in time to get our warning about the skinny water and "Bonk" they hit pretty hard. "Godspeed, Godspeed, we have a bug problem......... oh, we found the bottom too! Now picture this: French Canadians wearing their foul weather gear-hoods up (hot, 90 degrees or so) sitting hard on the bottom only concerned with the bugs. "What do you do Godspeed", Lorrie replied "do you have bug spray, that is working for us". "We have roach killer, think you that work?". We were doubled over in laughter by this time. They dove down below and we slipped through the skinny water shortly after and the Canadians were not to be seen on deck again. That evening, as we were approaching our anchorage, "Godspeed, would you like to make reservations in the resterante SeaVeyor? The menu is fillet Mignon, baked potatoes, and salad. Of course we did and another fine evening on SeaVeyor was had by all, complete with a wild anchor dance of three vessels. It was crazy, there is a nine foot tide here, which means in every 24 hour period 36 feet of water comes and goes so the currents are extreme and when the wind opposes them boats at anchor can do crazy things, we were well entertained as the vessels darted this way and that as if they were haunted. At sunrise we were headed to the dreaded "Hell Gate" named for the constant shoaling and unpredictable bottom that is attracted to keels. Before we reached it the flies got to bugging us in Saint Catherine's sound and we could see the ocean. We checked the charts and it was quite safe so "Exit stage right" We slipped onto the Atlantic and the cooler air sent the greenheads back to land and Hell Gate was bypassed as well. Sailed the day with the big boys and their shipping lanes, Delta Don took a swim that evening in Beaufort SC. Along the way we passed SeaVeyor, which has never been done before because thier lawnmower goes twice as fast as ours. Dwanye was crushed and said we cheated but what the heck, SeaVeyor spent the night in Georgia, and Godspeed in SC. Score: SeaVeyor 50 or so, Godspeed 1, "Kick um while their down".
Pat's Big mean sister Melanie and her esteemed husband Norm spent the next two days with us in Beaufort SC and we dinned on Bahamas lobster, steak, you know the usual cruiser cuisine (usually Vienna sausages or sardines). Toured the town and went for a day sail where capt'n Norm sailed under a bridge and joined the "bridge Club". It was great having them aboad again.
In Masonboro NC we decided to go clamming. We launched the Blonde and had no idea at all of how to do this so we saw a guy and did the unmanly thing, asked how! He said there in the mud, go find them. Armed with this great insight we did just that. Lorrie took the conventional approach and walked around squishing her feet in the mud hopeing to feel them, while I had the scientific approach and used an oar to stab the mud millions of times hoping to make contact with these crustaceans. Lorrie got 4 and I got 2-what a score! She was sooo happy that I could not even hold her precious clams, She was now a card carrying member of the "Hunter Gatherer Club". Just enough for an appetizer for one, so we split it and dingyed into Wrightsville Beach and did the tourist thing. The next morning we were joined by Judge and Chris Point for early morning clamming. In an hour or so we had a five gallon bucket half full and so was theirs, covered in mud like a bunch of kids. Now that is quality time well spent. We then weighed anchor and then headed north to find our depth sounder had quit(that is the thingy that tells you how deep it is). Now this is somthing you need in a cruising vessel and sould not go into unknown waters without. So we did the prudent thing and went anyway- 100+ miles to Bo-fert(actually Beaufort, same spelling as the one in SC but pronounced Bo-fert). SeaVeyor called us and said "we passed O'Canada in Cape Fear inlet today. So another reuinion was had. We had a clambake aboard SeaVeyor enjoying our friends and made a plan to assault the Cobia(big knarly fish that tastes good) run that was on in Cape Lookout. So we all set sail for Cape lookout and were served lemons-no Cobia. But hey, we used our new found skills and found the(you guessed it) CLAMS! I think Elvis had a movie Clambake. Anyway we had some great times again and Jamie played his guitar and sang us into "never neverland" each night with a belly full of calms-Spectacular times!
Then onto Oriental (Still no sounder) where our adventure began. We saw all of our Friends and Dave our Yacht Broker with ST. Barts was cheery as always. OK OK, I finally got a new sounder set up and it is fabulous to say the least. After Oriental, we rafted up(tied our boats together and swung on one hook) to our Friends Paul & Susan on Slow Dancing (nice lawnmower) in a remote anchorage and they made us dinner and breakfast the next morning before we parted wakes. Tonight we are tied to a dock (I know I know, this is bad for our image) in Elizabeth City NC. Before you pass judgment, the dock is a free service of the city, so this should not go against our permanent record. Tomorrow we take on "the Great Dismal swamp" stand by for news! Pictures: Rafted to "Slow Dancing", aboard "Slow Dancing" with Paul & Susan,Jamie & Sean on O'Canada, Worlds smallest "Grey Suit" (shark), Lorrie's Clams!