Friday, Nov 1st, 2002 Adams Creek NC (top of Neuse River)
First day of November.... Wow time is flying and it's feeling a bit nippy. We're now focusing on some southbound movement. We're trying to get as far south as we can each day so that it might stay warm enough to avoid winter clothes. So far mostly successful. We had a reasonable sail today with some motor-sailing. We went into an anchorage that both Brad in Manteo and Randy on Strider suggested called Adams Creek. It's located in the north end of the Neuse river where Pemlico sound ends. It was indeed a nice anchorage and we felt secure there even though the breeze picked up over night.
Saturday, Nov 2nd, 2002 Adams Creek NC to Beaufort NC
Today we're trying to get to Beaufort NC Scott has located a dive shop that we can purchase the book Will needs for his Scuba course when we get to Florida. Will has been studying Scott's book and has worked very diligently at his studies he is hoping to do better than his father on the written test! This new book has been elusive so far as PADI dive shops were not common since we started looking.
We make it to Beaufort by about lunch time. We find a cozy place to anchor in the crowed harbor just north of the drawbridge. Conveniently the dive store is right there. We hop in the dinghy and go over to get the new book. While shore side we decide to go to Subway and have a quick bite as we plan to set sail for Charleston SC after fueling up ant the town docks. We get back to the boat after going downtown (a short walk) to buy some more charts and cruising guides for Florida. It seems like you're never done buying charts! We clear through the drawbridge and then proceed SE to the Beaufort town docks for fuel.
We fuel up and head out the inlet at Beaufort is long and swells with confused seas due to the inordinate number of sportfish boats the nemesis of most cruisers with their big boats they make big wakes and are not the least bit concerned for others. I should say most are like that certainly not all!
We then hunker down for the long passage to Charleston SC.
Sunday November 3rd 2002 passage to Charleston
We arrive Charleston SC at 0530 Scott helms the boat past Fort Sumpter and up the channel to Charleston City Marina. The crew never wakes until the dock lines are made fast and coffee is being made. It's still dark and there is beginning to be a commotion on the docks here. The delivery crews are all getting ready to go and are milling around waiting for first light. Our aim is different we want fuel and to rest. The fuel docks open in about an hour so we wash off the boat and unload some trash. This is a great Marina almost all brand new! Thousands of feet of dock space, new heads and showers, laundry and dinghy docks. They even have high speed internet access available wireless or in the office and laundry. We elect to take one of their moorings across the way after fueling and showering. It's a grey day here as the drizzle falls.
Later in the day we do a little tour of downtown Charleston. The market and local sites but by far our best time was the visit to Fort Sumter. You must take a Parks Service ferry boat over and there was a great briefing of the forts history by a park ranger. We took pride to find that Yankee granite was at the foundation of Fort Sumter! We came to realize that much of what we know about the civil war is superficial and that more needs to be learned there for sure! They have a nice museum at the fort as well though we did not have enough time to visit as they were closing. We will go again!
We met other cruisers there in Charleston all with plans of Bahamas and further. We re-provisioned on the next day at Harris Teeters and got picked up by the Marina courtesy shuttle. This is a great service and put's them high on our list.
Monday November 6th 2002 Mosquito Creek SC
We departed Charleston for Mosquito creek SC we had to clear a drawbridge just a mile or so from us before 0600 or wait until after 0900. The wind was howling and the rain was driving so what did we do? Of course we slipped the mooring and headed out. After all we're only going down the ICW, right? Besides we had been talking to Bob and Hazel Lortie on Seafari and this looked like it might be a day we could end up in the same place. Bob and Hazel were cruising from Massachusetts and Scott had worked with both of them at Business Express.
So we headed out in the wind and the rain as the sun came up the rain let up and things were looking better. As we got down towards Bob and Hazel though the winds continued to build. We had hoped they would join us but as the winds went through 35 knots they decided to stay put. Probably a smart idea! We thought about dropping a hook next to them but we didn't like the anchorage as it was wide open to the wind. We were also not looking forward to setting and retrieving in that much wind. We continued on to Mosquito Creek SC. This was an interesting location off of the waterway a little bit. We ended up on a $20 per night dock. It was from a seafood wholesaler. We bought some awesome shrimp from them and chowed down!
Tuesday November 7th 2002 Broad Creek SC (Near Hilton Head)
We were on to Broad Creek right near Hilton Head. We found a nice little anchorage there for the evening.
Wednesday November 8th 2002 St Simons GA
We pushed and got to St. Simons GA we took a slip at the Golden Isles Marina. They had a courtesy car, fuel, muffins and coffee on the boat in the morning. We used the car on the second day to re-provision at a local grocery.
Thursday November 9th 2002 Cumberland Island GA
We got a late start today so that we could re-provision and rinse down the boat. We decided on a short day and went down behind Cumberland Island We found a nice little anchorage in Mumford Cove. We relaxed and took in the scenery!
11/10 pine island fl
11/11 new Smyrna Beach town docks
11/12 Palm Shores FL-- big blow boats aground
11/13 Ft Pierce
We arrived early afternoon at Ft. Pierce City Marina the crew was looking forward to seeing their Grand Parents and had been unruly for the last 24 hours with excitement. We spent the next 2 weeks enjoying Port St. Lucie at Grammy and Grampa's.
Will started his SCUBA training on Friday the 15th. We had decided to have Paul Towhill of Blue Planet Dive and Surf Shop do his certification. Melissa and Scott were certified by Paul last March. We took Will over at 10 AM to start the classroom portion of his certification. By mid afternoon a surprised Paul was ready to administer the written test. Will scored a 98% on the test. Paul said that he has administered the test over 300 times and he has only seen 4 100% scores (1 was Melissa) and that is mostly adults taking the test. Will did just as well with the pool and open water dives and Paul had a lot of compliments for the new diver! Check out some pictures of the open water dive here.
We also added two Kyocera 120 watt solar panels while here. We had been studying wind and solar for a while now and decided to add the solar first. We decided on solar because it is silent and maintenance free it also will put out more amperage during good sunlight than most wind generators at 15 knots. The right set up is a combination of the two technologies. We will probably add a wind generator later. We like both the Rutland 913 and the Ampair Pacific 100