A clear and sunny morning greeted us ready for our sail to West Palm Beach Florida, our exit out of the entrance was bumpy but once we were past the cross currents we unfurled the main sail and we were happily sailing down the coast it was only a  50 nautical mile sail and by 2pm we were motoring in to West Palm Beach, the sky clouded over as we approached land, it was smoggy too.

Craig has to go up front and flick a switch every time we have to pull up or take down the mainsail

West Palm Beach from the ocean, cloudy and smoggy

Another busy harbour this time there is a constant stream of cruise ships coming in and out.

There was actually plenty of room to anchor, that's Doriana Peter and Joyce's  boat in the foreground

We dropped the anchor with mansions on one side and as we found out when we went ashore, the exact opposite on the other.  

The West Palm Beach Sailing Club allows transient boaters to tie up at their dingy dock for a fee, $18 US per visit, this provides you with a secure place to leave your dingy, showers and Wi-Fi and its only a short walk to the main road that has the number 21 bus run past.  

The area on the sailing club side was mostly Hispanic and kind of rough to say the least !!  On the second day we were just about to exit the bus when a big muscled white guy stops me and says "you are not from around here are you?" "no" I said   "don't get off the bus here its a really bad unsafe area"   he said, "We have to" was my response "we need to go down that street" he just shrugged as if to say well I did try to warn you.  We literally ran back to the sailing club suddenly noticing that all the houses had their windows either boarded up or full bar security screens on them.  While we were scurrying home a car pulled over in front of us on and angle and a Hispanic man jumped out, he ran past us into the house quite innocently being dropped off after work but it made my heart race seeing the car pull over next to us.

On our last day there I chose to stop at a laundromat while Craig caught the bus to the marine shop, really the neighbourhood was ok during the day, just not so safe at night.

The girl sitting next to me had an ankle band on she was obviously out on parole and not allowed to wander too far. 

On the streets there were spaced out drug addicts and prostitutes, a homeless man that lived at the bus stop with all his worldly possessions spread around him.  We did try to chat to him one day, but we could not understand him, there was a closed up service station/garage that had a bit of a shanty town behind it and every morning there were crowds of men on the street corners I'm guessing there would be trucks come past and pick them up and ferry them to job sites around the city.

We bought all our fruit and veg from the local supermarket and found the cheapest  Mexican cans of sweet corn, we tried their shop made tortillas (I thought they tasted weird but Craig enjoyed them) and shopped like a local.
I discovered Trader Joes what a great shop, it has unusual and cool foodstuff and really cheap wine,  the family on the catamaran next to us offered to take me with them when they went as Craig had helped them out with a lift back to shore when they had water in the petrol tank of their dingy motor after the most torrential rain we have ever experienced.

The Ray marine chart plotter that came with the boat is almost out of date and cannot be updated so buying the charts for The Bahamas - and the rest of the world- was proving to be a problem so we had no choice but to purchase a new one.

Part of the conversion was the face of the new plotter was smaller than the old one this meant we had to find a plastic cutting factory to make a frame for the screen, so on the bus we went, this trip took 2 buses there and back, we discovered the next day that we could buy a $5 all day pass rather than the $2 per ride we had been paying.  The screen took a couple of trips to get right, but once it was fitted it was perfect.

The new frame also makes the plotter waterproof

It felt like we were pulling the boat apart

The next drama was we had to feed the new wires through the body of the boat to the power source, well that was a job and a half but eventually after much cursing - the wires were fed through without having to pull the lining off the ceiling, Craig had been emailing the Hunter factory for help that's how difficult the job was.

We had a visit from Cherie and her husband she had very kindly allowed us to have parcels sent to her home and even more kindly delivered them to us, we had enjoyed Cherie's hospitality at her  Airbnb on our first visit to Miami.  I don't think Cherie expected to be ferried  by dingy to Adriana, we were actually anchored quite a long way out but she coped very well, we sat and chatted over a glass of wine and some nibbles she not only brought our parcels but gifted us a selection of Christmas tree ornaments and some beautiful star fruit from her garden.

Its so lovely to catch up with people we have met along the way 

We also had a visit from Jay and Corrie whos boat was anchored next to us in Wiarton, Jays parents have a house about 40 minutes drive north from where we were and they took the time to come and see us, it was so lovely to catch up with them, Jay admitted he follows us on AIS and his phone alerts him every time we move on - and he is so envious.  When we left Wiarton he had mentioned he would be down this way in late December but we never imagined we would still be here in the US.
Corrie very kindly agreed to take all the chart books and maps back to Wiarton to return to Bill whom we purchased Adriana from.  This was something that had been worrying me as we had said we would return the books but there was no way we could afford to pay the postage for the huge pile we had.

I'm sure we are going to see Jay and Corrie again somewhere on our travels

Christmas came and went with no window of favourable winds to take us down to the Bahamas so we made the most of our time on anchor I found a great thrift store along the bus route everything was donated from the mansion side of the river so many designer clothes and grand furniture even Craig was impressed.

We invited Peter and Joyce an Australian/Phillipson couple and Matt and Josie an Australian /American couple to join us for Christmas lunch.  Matt and Peter are ex air pilots and good friends who were very excited to catch up.  Matt and Josie arrived around midday with lunch due to be served on Adriana at 1pm. 

Craig cooked up a storm I don't know if he will attempt it again in such a small kitchen.  We had roast turkey, roast potato's, cauliflower and cheese sauce, gravy, honey carrots and green beans. Joyce and Peter brought the glazed ham and a beautiful egg custard pudding and Matt and Josie contributed a huge slice of camembert and crackers what a feast oh yes and we made egg nog, we drank champagne and white wine it was a lovely day I had picked some red flowers and palm leaves for the table and  a few little presents from the thrift shop to add to the fun.  The thrift shop had everything half price for the holidays

so I think I spent less than $10 all up including the half price roll of wrapping paper. I had taken the bus and gone to a big normal supermarket to look for bonbons and plum pudding but the Americans don't seem to have these as Christmas traditions.  At the end of the day we sat and played a board game that I had given Peter, it was a fun day.  

Getting ready for Christmas lunch

Craig even whipped up my birthday cake while cooking lunch 

Arriving is easier than leaving, after a few drinks 

It was the full Christmas spread 

We missed our family but making new friends is always fun

Facetime is great and we caught up with family in Australia, Angus my nephew even put us on the big tv screen we had timed it so that everyone was there to say hello, it was hard and I must admit I did shed a few tears afterwards.
I celebrated my Birthday with a beautiful cake and more facetime and so many lovely messages from home.

Happy Birthday to me

We caught up with Alexi and Craig spent a little time helping him with his engine problem, Stella has stayed in US heading to Florida Keys to catch up with friends.

How did we end up spending 18 days in West Palm Beach ?  there was just not a good weather forecast to get out of there.  Off the coast of Florida there is the gulf stream that runs up from Mexico to Greenland it has an incredibly strong current sweeping  in the opposite direction of where we needed to go. The prevailing winds that hit Florida are onshore Easterlies,  The combination of wind against tide can produce HUGE rough seas that are no way suitable for small yachts to go out in, the big cruise ships cross everyday but not the smaller vessels.

So we had to wait for two days in a row that have good westerlies, one to let the sea calm down and then head out the next day.  There is a guy called Chris Parker who dedicates his time to forecasting the best time to cross, and this time of year is very busy as the Northern States get cold the Canadians and north American retirees head south. so we had lots of information to guide us  

Steve and Jane were sending us Chris Parkers forecasts daily, then the tropical storm came through, there was a tropical storm forecasted to last for a few days, torrential rain with thunder and lightening thrown in, luckily we didn't experience any lightening.  Pam Beach is the lightening strike capital of the world.  The rain was incredible. We did get caught by it a couple of times walking back from the bus.  

On one occasion, after the first initial downpour we opened up the caps to our freshwater tanks and placed tea towels to cause a pool to form and divert the rainwater into our water tanks - bonus

At least the weather is warm - average 25c -  22c overnight

One day we were on shore about to catch the bus to West Marine when a lovely man called Cal offered to drive us there, he is a boat broker and his schedule for the day had changed and he had nothing planned so in we hopped and were chauffer driven there and back with a stop off at the Yanmar dealers as well.  Cal was telling us he has been struck by lightning 4 times with different boats so much so that his insurance company rang him up to tell him his costs for the next year had to increase when his policy ran out in a few days and the next day he was struck by ightining again !!

We were glad to leave there.

Finally there was a suitable weather window we had filled the boat with dry food, dry goods, cans, frozen meats and as much fruit and veg as we thought we could use before it goes off.  

We motored to one of the marinas and filled up with diesel, then we dropped the anchor almost at the mouth of the entrance and waited until late afternoon, the optimum time to leave as we would travel through the night and arrive in Lucaya at sunrise.

23rd November 2019   (Happy Birthday Dad xx)

Sleeping in late we had a lazy morning and cooked a nice bacon and eggs breakfast before we lifted the anchor and headed off down the ICW, it was only a short 1 hour trip and we were at the Lions Bridge, St. Augustine.  

Lions Bridge St Augustine in the background, you can see all the masts in the Marina on the other side of the bridge

The anchorage area was pretty full as we approached the town marina - which is just after Lions Bridge, a low bridge that swings up - to open- on the hour, to let the yachts and tall masted boats through.  It was so busy we could not find a vacant spot to anchor so we called the municipal marina to enquire about a mooring ball, but no they could not accommodate us, "now we are stuffed" says Craig, then we notice there may be room for us on the opposite side of the river, we moseyed on across and yes there was ample room to drop the anchor and let enough chain out to allow for the strong currents and reversing tides.

Saturday morning we dinghied ashore, the deal is you have to pay the Marina $12.50 plus tax to be able to use their dingy dock, this allows you to tie up and gives you access to the showers, washing machines and Wi-Fi (although we were too far out to have constant Wi-Fi, it did come through to the boat from time to time but in a way that is so frustrating waiting and waiting on a page to upload and then it drops out  - gone and you have to start again, so in the end it was easier to go without Wi-Fi.

Marina and bridge looking from shore

St Augustine is such a pretty town but very touristy.  It is the oldest city in the US it was first settled by the Spanish and has some spectacular Spanish architecture beautifully restored and immaculately presented.  Opps the Spanish came and kicked out the indigenous tribes who first inhabited the land.

The first stone fort to be built in America guards the city and is open to walk around, where we were anchored was just opposite the old fort, we nearly shit ourselves the first time they had a cannon fire re-enactment it was so close to us and so loud, we then had a laugh at the new arrivals to the anchorage who would have had the same reaction as us.

Out walking we passed through the town gates and into the old city, so many tiny buildings with history information plaques and gorgeous restored buildings hosting cafes, restaurants, bars, ice cream parlours, chocolate shops, art galleries, clothing shops, tap breweries, souvenirs and everything else in-between.   

Flagler College campus 

The City Gates

See the little red train, there were heaps of them taking tourists sightseeing around the city 

There are some stunning buildings Flagler college is a liberal art college located in the Ponce De Leon Hotel that was built in 1888.

We had a lovely walk through the old town and visited the Aussie Kookaburra Café where we had sat and booked our visas and flights to Canada 9 months ago.

later in the day  we stopped for a beer  and started talking to  a guy at the bar and he explained it was "Night Of Lights" and tonight is the night they turn on the lights so its a big party night, and one of the busiest days in St Augustine.  Every business owner is committed to lighting up their building with lights and the local council string lights in the trees, along the fences, they totally light up Lions Bridge, everywhere you cans string lights, basically the town turns into an illuminated wonderland, its actually quite spectacular we have since learnt that St Augustine is one of the biggest destination in the US for viewing Christmas lights.  its a tradition for families to visit to see the lights and they come from everywhere.  This guy we were chatting to only lived 30 minutes away but he and his wife had booked a room so that they could have a party and not have to drive home.

We were back on the boat by about 8.30 just in time to see the lights go on, on the bridge actually the big cheer that we could hear from the shore made us go up and have a look to see what was going on.  The place was so crowded mostly families, all American but with so many different ethnicities, everyone got along and were courteous to each other irrelevant of their background or race.

So many people

The town square, also had the original building that was used as a slave market !! 

"Palm Trees"

It really was quite magical at night, not so much in the heat of the day 

Lions Bridge and the Marina at dusk

When we were chatting to the guy in the bar he had suggested we grab a slice of pizza and now we know what he was referring to, the  "Pizza Time" shop its "Voted number #2 pizza shop in America",  we did not know it was here and stumbled across a line of people waiting to order and we couldn't resist trying it out. Definitely delicious Craig declared it was the best pizza he had ever tasted, We did go back for seconds later in the week.

We filled our days walking to the various stores we needed to visit you know all the usual supermarket, laundry there was a marine consignment store, where we picked up an anchor for our dingy.  

Later in the week we designed and ordered boat cards.

Everyone has boat cards and they are actually really useful so it was time to get some for Adriana, the office works type store Staples did an online service where you could design and order then collect from the store.  But of course nothing is ever easy.  We could not pay online with our Aussie credit card so off I went to organise.  I had found out there was a bus that would take me there, the bus service only runs past these shops about 6 times a day.  I caught the bus there, it was funny waiting at the bus stop I was chatting to this guy who I think was the local drug dealer, he knew a lot of people who went past and he tottered off a couple of times with them, but came back, and then he did not even get on the bus when it eventually arrived.
I made it to the shop and caught a different bus back that dropped me on the way, at a major intersection it didn't go down the road I needed and I had to walk for miles back.  Then the next day was Sunday and there was no bus service !! We had to wait for the Monday, I caught the bus to the shop but missed the return bus and it was like 3 hours until the next one so I walked the 8.5km, It took me all day to just to pick up the boat cards.

St Augustine has a great cruisers net, every morning at 8am they broadcast over the VHF marine radio they do weather, fishing, buy and sell, marine services and social events, that's where we heard of the Thanksgiving Pot Luck Lunch being held on the Thursday so we decided just to hang out and stay for a few more days.  Thanksgiving was a hoot the organisers cooked the turkey and ham then everyone brought along a side dish to share
we or should I say Craig made a beautiful couscous salad, there was everything including homemade corn bread and baked beans that are local southern specialities, there were salads and roast veggies, scalloped potatoes and even mac cheese.

Plus a huge table laden desserts with lots of pumpkin pies.  We sat and chatted to a few couples who are out cruising and also on their way South to the Bahamas.

Thanksgiving Lunch with the Cruisers Net

I spotted the young couple who were anchored just in front of us and headed over for a chat, turns out they are not a couple but on 2 separate boats, Stella is French and has been living on her steel hulled boat for a few years, she has sailed from Martinique and is sailing on her own and working when she can. Alexi is from Isles De Madeline and knows everyone that we met there, it was lovely to talk to him, he is heading to Costa Rica with a quiver of surfboards.  I am in awe of these two sailors doing it all on their own.  Alexi left St Augustine on the same day as we did, Craig has been txt and talking to him most days.

We had fun in St Augustine it is a lovely vibrant city and the yachting community was very welcoming and friendly.  But its time to move on. 

Alexi and Stella's boats anchored behind us 

Our next spot on the map is Fort Pierce, we visited FP on our quest to buy Adriana, on St Patricks Day last year, I remember there was a great market happening next to the marina but we were too busy looking at boats that we missed it, so hopefully it will be on when we are there.

The conditions were right to exit the St Augustine entrance around 1pm so after motoring past Stella and Alexi to say goodbye we headed out the channel, we had called the local Tow Boats US to check the condition of the entrance - that it had not shoaled over, he said we were ok to go but to stick to the red markers in the channel.  

The seas got a bit lumpy as the exiting current hit the ocean but it was not as bad as anticipated.

Our route is straight down the coastline with one land mass to round at Cape Canaveral.       We put the sails up as soon as we were past the entrance markers and we managed to sail the whole 160 nautical miles.  It did get a bit heavy in the middle of the night and we reefed in the main to slow us down. But allover it was a good fast sail, we had one concern the coast guard radio messages emitted on VHF 16 kept giving warning messages for an injured Southern Right Whale, mother with calf in the area and we were a bit worried we might hit her, it was a real possibility and well you know how your imagination can run wild....in the dark in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean.

Around midnight we started hearing Coast Guard messages tell us that there was to be a Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral and all waters in the area would be restricted from 10am, our timing was good and we were well past the restricted area by daybreak.  As we sailed past we could see the area lit up onshore and using our binoculars we could see the rocket !!!

They actually called off the launch that day as the high atmosphere winds were too strong but it was launched the following day, it was taking supplies to the International Space Station. We thought we might have been able to hear it but all we could see was a wiggly white line in the sky.

We were not close enough to see the rocket launch as it was delayed by one day but this is what we did see

We did cross into the gulf stream and one point as the water again turned the most incredible blue and the temperature of the water went up to 26c and it was very turbulent a sign of things to come when we cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.

We motored up the inlet and anchored just off the ICW,  After we dropped the anchor we had a big tidy up heated up some lunch and rested for the afternoon.  I think we were in
bed asleep before dark  (5.30 - 6.00pm)  We are getting better at sharing the night watches and taking 2 hour shifts but yeah your tired for the next couple of days.

We had read that there was access to a Publix supermarket at this end of town that's why we stopped there we were up early the next morning we need to get organised for the Bahamas !!!

There was a marina right next to where we were anchored and there is a restaurant where we can leave the dingy while we go ashore and hey we are happy to have a beer on the way back, but we thought we should just check with the staff not just walk off and leave our

dingy there, lucky we did apparently the supermarket has closed for renovations and no there are no other shops nearby only if you take an uber, so back we went in the dingy and had to think of a plan B.

We had met up with Jane and Steve (Canadians) in St Augustine and they too are headed to Fort pierce and we had arranged to catch up, they were planning to anchor around the corner under the fixed bridge, so we upped the anchor and headed towards the bridge only to find it was high tide and Adriana was not going to fit underneath it.  We swung around and headed back down the entrance channel, to where some other yachts we had noticed were anchored just off the main channel, this was a good spot for us nice and deep with plenty of swing room and the water looked nice and clear. We had not been able to make water in St Augustine as the water was murky and there was too much water traffic around it was full of fuels and undesirable stuff, so our tanks were getting low.

We didn't need to fill up with diesel just yet so no filling up with water when topping up the fuel.  But this water is beautiful and clear so good for using our water maker to make drinking water.

Our anchor held first go and we settled in to life at Fort Pierce, there was an old/ pretty unsafe dingy dock opposite where we were anchored but we climbed out and locked the dingy to it.  We have started locking the up the dingy as we are approaching the more populated cities.

Dolphins

They are hard to capture on film, but there were plenty of dolphins around 

That's where we found the electric scooters they are a great idea but their allowed range is limited so we could not get to where we wanted to go also the next time we looked we could not find any close by, they had all been used and left on the other side of town.   

We decided just to walk the 6km to Aldi to get started on our provisioning, it took us an hour or so walking along Highway 1. plus I had to walk over a huge bridge.  Craig had to hold my hand and talk to me the whole way I don't know what I'm scared off but I hate walking over heights.

Wonky dingy dock with Adriana in the background

Fort Pierce has a great Saturday market and we were lucky enough to be there on a Saturday, there were some great food stalls, perfect fruit and veg, live music and interesting art.

Fort Pierece Inlet from where we were anchored looking out to sea

We filled two trollies to the limit and caught an uber back to the dingy, luckily the uber that arrived was a big SUV. The dingy ride home was a bit treacherous and then we had to

put everything away, we had bought a lot of meat (chicken, mince pork and sausages) that we separated into small batches and stashed in the freezer.  We had bought about 30 toilet rolls, they went under the spare bed.  4 bags of flour, 10 potato chips and the same in corn chips then so many tins of things like peaches, stag chilli, packets of pasta, a big bag of rice enough to last us 4 months, food is expensive and not always available in The Bahamas.

We still have to get the fresh fruit and veg and the BEER.

There was no room for me to sit !!

Our freezer blew the little computer type fan that keeps the motor cool, we ordered 2 new fans and a replacement water pump (just in case) from Amazon and again we had to cancel the order as they never actually arrived. 

We still had to source a replacement oar and pin for the dingy that we lost in Hurricane Dorian we were struggling to find a supplier who carried the spare parts.  

Along with Jane and Steven we visited a marine liquidators warehouse and picked up a few bits but nothing that we were trying to source.
With Jane's help I found a cheap wetsuit, some fins and a full faced snorkel, I will have to be brave and get used to snorkelling hopefully the new full face type will be better than the old snorkel in the mouth style.  I also picked up a snorkelling buoyancy vest that I did not know even existed, this will help me stay afloat and give me confidence in the water - well I hope so anyway.  It was great going with Jane and Steve they have been to The Bahamas 3 times and were full of advice and being Canadians they were more than happy to share their knowledge.

One evening the boat anchored next to us invited us and the other boat close by, to go over onto the beach next to where we were all anchored, they were going to light a fire and cook some sausages, we were like yes this is the life, we had a lovely evening around the fire having a beer and hearing the other 2 couples stories.

BUT we did get attacked by "no - see - ums" tiny little sand fly type bugs that bite - the next day was not too bad but the next night it felt like our legs were on fire !!!

I am adding more bug spray and soothing gel to the shopping list they have the same "no - see - ums" in the Bahamas.  And I can confirm the itching is intense and lasts for days.

While we were waiting on the parts Jane and Steve departed on their way to The Bahamas we will catch up with them hopefully just in time for Christmas Day.

I hoisted Craig up the mast to replace the globe on the mast light, using the winches Craig is still worried I will let him drop too quickly !! 

Generally we tidied up  provisioned did engine checks all the maintenance stuff ready for our passage over to the Bahamas.

As it was nearing Christmas we were privileged to have the prime location to watch the annual Christmas boat parade.

They were mostly motor boats with Christmas Carols blaring from the speakers

The bridge in the background is the one I had to walk over !!

But we hit a problem, when we did our big shop at Aldi we bought a few kilos of meat and on our return we had to use both our drop fridges tuned on to" freezer" mode, we had been working with one as a freezer and one as a fridge.  The one that had been the freezer started to overheat, the little fan that cools the motor down was not working also the small fridge that was turned off and used to store our beer, now had to be turned on and used to store veggies. The fan in that one stopped working as well.
After numerous phone calls we eventually found a fridge mechanic company who would help us, but they would not come on to the boat while we were on anchor their insurance would not cover the mechanic visiting our boat, we were not prepared to go into a marina at $2.50 per foot $US mainly because who knows how long it would take to get parts if we needed them and we didnt want to get stuck there.

To cut a long story short Craig with the help of the fridge mechanic and google sussed out the problem, He ordered 2 small computer type fans costing us $180, they took about 3 days to be delivered to the Fort Pierce Marina and on fitting them we found that they were both totally wrong.

Craig managed to rewire the fans and bypass the contoller, they now run 24/7 instead of running in cycles.  We couldnt wait any longer we needed to head off down south as beleive it or not the weather was turning cooler day by day.

Our last was to pick up the beer.  We walked to a local liquor outlet and purchased 35 boxes of beer (12-18 cans per box) this allows us 2 a day for the next for months the girls In the shop were really funny trying to act nonchalant at such a big sale and we were extremely lucky the father of the guy who owned the shop just happened to be calling in to the shop as we were ordering an Uber and gave us a lift back to the dingy dock, the trip back in the dingy was worse than the one with the groceries.  I really thought the bottom was going to come away from the sides of the dingy and again there was no where for me to sit, but we made it and then spent the next hour or so stashing the beer away.

So after 10 nights in Fort Pierce  we upped the anchor and motored out of the inlet back into the North Atlantic, next stop West Palm Beach.

Early Morning on the ICW

Thursday 14th November 

Veering off  the ICW we pulled into Beaufort and found a great anchorage directly in front of the main tourist strip, with the added bonus of easy dingy access. We dropped the anchor and headed ashore, we put on a load of washing and after a quick walk around we headed for a little pub that we had read about in Active captain, and it was tiny -  set in an old old building with heaps of character you could just imagine pirates congregating in the corner, it was full of sailing folk and pretty cool locals.  We are right in the middle of North Carolina so the accents are getting pretty thick with a southern drawl think "y'all take care now ya hear".  As we are having a beer waiting on the washing we started chatting to Bill who offered to drive us to the local supermarket (it was going to be a fair walk to get there and back) - how nice was that.
We were happy to take Bill up on his offer and after collecting our laundry we jumped in his car and we were off to "Piggly Wiggly"  the supermarket with the cutest name.  He then dropped us back at the dingy dock we had taken the opportunity to load up with some heavy items, like 2 boxes of beer and a big bag of flour.

Once back on the boat we discovered to our horror that Craig's phone was missing !!!

We searched all through the boat and the dingy, Craig went back to the dock and walked around where we had gotten out of the car -  we rang the phone, it rang but there was no answer.  We were hopeful it was in Bills car, he had told us he volunteered at the Beaufort Maritime Museum so we knew we would be able to contact him in the morning.
  

We were up and on land early, retraced our steps from when Craig last remembered using his phone, he had taken a photo of the sunset with Adriana in the foreground.
  

Our next step was to contact Bill, the staff at the museum were so helpful they called Bill and he searched his car but no it was not there, we contacted the supermarket and went back to the laundromat, but no it was gone. 

Luckily we still have my phone,  the very kind lady in the museum ordered us an Uber lift to the  AT&T phone shop, where they happily gave us a new sim card with the same phone number at no cost.
The down side was we have lost a lot of photos and Craig had to wrack his brains to remember what passwords he had used for all the apps on his phone, Navionics, Windy, Banking just to name a few.
We met up with Daniel and Andrew and went back to the pub that evening but no the phone didn't ever show up.  This really put a dark cloud over our stay in Beaufort.

Adriana in the Beaufort anchorage area, we lost all the other photos

Friday 15th November

On the way down we have been watching the series Black Sails and we are now in pirate territory.  We went ashore to go back to the Maritime Museum.  It is a beautiful well presented free museum with a large section on pirates, mostly focusing on Blackbeard, with lots of artifacts collected from the ocean floor, from wrecked ships either pirate ships or ships the pirates had taken.  
A research scientist was on site her job was to sift through sand taken from around a wreck and pull out tiny particles of gold, painstakingly slow work.  There were buttons and pins, swords and all sorts of tableware and bottles on display.

It was such a great spot in Beaufort we could have stayed there for a while but guess what there is a 3 day storm on its way.  We tried to stay on anchor but the forecasts were for gusts up to 60 knots and temps down to 3C and we just didn't want to be that uncomfortable for 3 days and 3 nights.

We get our information from the Windy app

We had to call around but managed to find a berth at the Moorhead City Docks only a short motor from where we were.  It was late in the day when we made the decision to move and the winds had started to build so we high tailed it around the corner and tied up safely to the town docks where we had showers and could go for a walk even in the rain and wind.  Once we were settled we realised, as we had gone bow in to the spot, our power cord would not reach so we went for a walk to the local marine shop to try to source an extension cord. Unfortunately they did not have a cord with the correct amps that we needed.  

The girls there were so helpful with their southern drawls "an all".  A local who was being served at the same time as us offered to drive us to West Marine to see if they had the right one, how nice was that.  To cut a long story short we had called ahead and what they thought we needed was in stock but the ampage was wrong plus it was going to cost us a few hundred US$$$ more than on Amazon.  

This is the extension cord we were trying to find not your average extension cord

After catching an Uber back we just ran a normal extension cord down through the bedroom window and ran the portable heater. 

We had wrapped a towel around the gap in the window where the cord came through but that didn't work very well as it wicked the water into the boat.  In the end we just left the gap open, it actually didn't rain that much over the 3 days but the temperature dropped and it was very damp with buckets of condensation inside the boat and wind howling through the rigging.   We awoke in the middle of the night with the ipad on the throw blanket soaking wet underneath from the heat of our bodies.

We ran the small heater the whole time we were there.

There were yachts either side of us one couple were from Germany and on the other side they were from Canada, we are meeting so many Canadians heading South for winter.  They have a name "Snowbirds"

We rode out the 3 day weather securely tied to land, it was such a luxury.  I even managed to get to the local library and upload a couple of blog pages.

Monday 18th November

We were up early and ready to go by 8am the winds had abated but the temperatures were still low !! So low that we decided to run the gauntlet and do a sail down the outside, back out into the North Atlantic to try and get further South as quickly as possible.  

We worked out we could get to Florida if we sailed for 72 hours (3 days and 3 nights) 360 nautical miles. We would be missing out on South Carolina and Georgia but we were sick of being chased by the cold weather and 360 nm south would make a huge difference.

We passed this strange vessel, we asked the Uber driver - its used to catch practice missiles

Our first day was easy we had wind then it dropped out then it picked up again so it was a mixture of motoring and sailing we even sailed with "big red" the spinnaker when the wind dropped to a slight breeze.

Craig bundled up from the cold pulling up Big Red

The first night was hard and at one stage we both fell asleep but probably not for long we have to learn to be more disciplined in taking our turns on watch/sleeping.  We had made a green curry and had plenty of food but you tend not to feel like eating and after the first night you generally just feel hung over.  

It was so cold we were wrapped in all the warm clothes we owned 

Another stunning sunset

We put the fishing line out on the second day and caught a tuna. It was just within bag size,  it was like a massacre onboard when Craig filleted it there was blood everywhere I mean everywhere and you actually have to scrub the blood to remove it from the deck, yuck.

Before the massacre

An earlier fishing attempt ended with something really big chomping on a very expensive lure.

Craig was not happy

Stunning skies out on the North Atlantic 

We were joined by a little bird for part of the journey, it spent a few hours resting on deck and was happy hopping around our feet.

The second night was horrendous with strong headwinds and confused seas with short sharp waves slamming into us and throwing us around we had to slow the boat down by shortening the main sail, it was difficult to go downstairs so we just sat wrapped in blankets and took it in turns to sleep it was still bitterly cold.

I mentioned earlier it gets dark about 5.30pm and the sun comes up at 7am - that's 13 hours of darkness.  

So that we were not cooking in the dark we had dinner early and after we were finished we just looked at each other and said omg what are we going to do for the next 13 hours !!!

As dawn broke we hit the gulf stream we were out at least 60 nautical miles off shore as we were giving Cape Fear a wide berth.  The water turned the most amazing blue and was 24c but it was choppy and we had current running against us making it quite uncomfortable so we were happy to veer inland once we had passed the cape.

We kept on through the night with no real drama.

On the second day we were getting used to the routine and our night sail was steady and not too choppy.

On the morning of the 3rd day the seas got so rough at one stage that I cracked it and said no more we cannot do another  day/night like this.  Thank goodness we had reached our planned destination and turned to head towards the Jacksonville harbour entrance.

There are only a handful of entrances from the ocean into or out of  the ICW and even less that are main shipping channels, we had read about shoaling affecting the non major entrances so had planned to go into Jacksonville one of the major shipping channels.

After the choppy rough weather it suddenly changed to smooth rolling seas and light winds the water changed back to greenish blue and the temperature of the water dropped to 17c so we were out of the gulf stream and no longer fighting the currents.  As the day warmed up we were able to remove our layers and for a while we just drifted along doing a few knots not fast but just cruising steadily along.  

Craig went below and made sushi using the tuna he had caught. How lucky am I 

We were greeted by dolphins as we approached Jacksonville one pod with a young pup who was so fast and had so much more energy than the others then another pod and another, our first real encounter with dolphins swimming along our bow.

Luckily we have all the ingredients onboard

Making do with a teacup holding the soy sauce

21st November 2019

The entrance to Jacksonville has windswept beaches on one side and warships on the other, lots of fishing boats, and the river was being dredged, there was lots happening around us as we motored up the St Johns River that leads into Jacksonville, then we took a side turn and anchored in a small basin just off the river we didn't need to take the 20 mile motor all the way into Jacksonville, we just needed to rest and regain some energy.

Entrance to the harbour we are excited to see the white sand beaches

So many Navy ships up and down the coast 

Our anchorage in Jacksonville, just off the river, opposite suburbia

St Augustine is our next stop and we decided to take the inland ICW for the 30 nautical miles and as we were entering the start of the ICW we were using both our Navionics and Chartplotter, we were off the marked channel but both devices showed adequate depth for us, when suddenly we stopped dead OOpps we were sitting in 0.00 water.  Craig threw Adriana into reverse and managed to get us out of a grounding, we swung back around and took the entrance in the centre of the white marked channel showing on the chart plotter, whew.
We had three bridges to pass under and timed it well managing to pass under them at low tide and just rising tides.  The currents were incredibly strong especially under the bridges where the waterways were a lot narrower.
This part of the ICW is highly populated so its really interesting seeing all the waterside properties there are many huge mansions and boats galore along he shoreline, there is still shoaling and obstructions so it takes a lot of concentration to stay on track, but we made it safely to the outskirts of St Augustine, where we came upon a lovely secluded little spot just off the river, we pulled in and dropped the anchor for a restful night before hitting civilisation again. Its only going to get busier and more populated from here down to Miami.

The view along the way 

The sun is shining and we are happy to be in shorts and tshirts

Grey pelicans, smaller that the ones we are used to

Majestic white herons were everywhere

We have so many photos of birds now !

A lovely calm anchorage makes up for all the storms 

Our little anchorage outside of St Augustine, notice the green navigation light 

Houses on one side parks on the other it was very marshy around this area 

We are starting to see more tropical vegetation