One of our goals as we traveled north was to anchor out more often instead of staying in marinas. One obvious reason is finances, as our cruising “kitty” is limited, marinas can get expensive. But another reason is that being at anchor is generally more peaceful and comfortable – the boat points into the wind so the motion is more natural and breeze travels through the boat more easily to keep us cool. Our first night, we anchored in the north end of Lake Worth – all went well. Eric and the kids took the dinghy ashore to do some fishing while Karrie stayed on board and relaxed.
On Memorial Day, we traveled just a short distance north to Stuart, FL, and anchored in Manatee Pocket Cove. We met for an early dinner with Paul Gulsvig, Karrie’s high school choir director, and his wife, Jane, who happened to be in the area visiting their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. It was wonderful to see them and meet their families, and visa versa. Eric took a group via dinghy to tour the boat so they could see how/where we live. It is times like this where Facebook is a great thing- without it, we wouldn’t have known they were in Florida and would have missed the opportunity to connect.
From Stuart, we traveled north and anchored out several times, stopping periodically at marinas to get fuel, showers, laundry, and fresh food. The anchoring was going well, with not many boats still south it was easy to find anchorages with lots of room. Karrie and Eric celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary anchored off of South Daytona Beach, with Ava and Reed made us a lovely dinner! Reed caught a fish but it wasn't big enough to eat.
We were traveling via the ICW again, but this time we were fortunate as the wind was from the perfect angle for sailing on a broad reach for 3 straight days, along the long straight stretches past Cape Canaveral area and beyond. It is so much quieter and enjoyable to have the diesel engine off. We are still seeing dolphins every day, ospreys, herons, egrets, and several manatees.
We stopped early one day to stay at Marineland, a marina associate with a dolphin sanctuary. They also rehabilitate sea turtles, sharks, and rays. It was educational and fun, with all of us learning so much more about the animals we see every day on our travels. Dolphins are amazing! They can turn off half of their brain at a time to “sleep” since they can’t ever fully sleep or they would drown.
We made our “insurance mandated” destination by June 1st and promptly "slowed down" per our commitment to stay on Island Time.
We spent 3 days anchored off the north coast of Georgia's Cumberland Island. We were the only boat or sign of civilization for as far as we could see, except a few distant lights over the marsh grasses and the occasional passing mast of another sailboat on the main channel. We spent the days relaxing, reading, playing games, and exploring in the dinghy - pretty much the epitome of what we'd all envisioned for cruising life. The silence was broken occasionally by the splash of the large tarpon (fish) jumping or the heron squawk as it flew by. During one dinghy ride, we saw several dolphins beaching themselves at low tide, to clean their skins and presumably keep them smooth/fast.
Just north of Cumberland is Jekyll Island, a former playground/enclave of the rich and famous from the late 1800s, and early 1900s. The historical buildings have been well maintained and are scattered among the Spanish moss covered live oak trees. The marina we stayed at (and also anchored across from) had loaner bikes - the entire island can be easily covered by bike and there are very well maintained bike paths to use. We explored the historic district as well as did some grocery shopping and sight seeing. Great exercise as well as fun and educational. There was also a pool for cooling off and Ava and Reed met some local kids to hang out with as well as a 10 year old boy from another cruising boat.
After 3 days at Jekyll Island, we traveled toward Beaufort, SC. Two great anchorages, again both in marshes far from city lights made star gazing fantastic. Ava declared that the star gazing was one of her favorite parts of our trip so far. We are getting good at figuring out how to anchor in the "Low Country" rivers. They are characterized by swift currents and very high tide changes (8ft) so getting the anchor set properly when you know the boat is going to swing 180 degrees at least once or twice during the night is an important skill to have. We had a squall with 40 mph winds come through at one anchorage and everything held fine.
We are now set up in Beaufort, SC at a beautiful place called Lady's Island, just off Factory Creek. We've got boat projects to do and paperwork to catch up on so will likely stay here a week or so. The people are superfriendly, the city has a lot to offer in addition to the stuff we "have" to get done, so we are in no hurry to move on.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for your patience as we got caught up on our travels! We will try to post more frequently now that we have better internet access again.
2 Comments
Susan
6/13/2015 07:51:06 am
Love following your amazing journey! Keep the updates coming.
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nancy
6/14/2015 05:30:25 am
So much fun, living vicariously through your adventures! Reed, take care of that arm! Love the sea life pictures. So jealous. ; -)
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AuthorsWe are Karrie, Eric, Ava, and Reed Sanderson. Our house is in Seattle but our home is wherever the four of us are...and for the next two years, our home is Night Music, a Tartan 37 Sailboat. Archives
June 2016
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