STA to Fort Pierce

Our departure from STA Friday was rough!  After leaving the channel we had 4-6’ short period seas on the port quarter.  It got a little smoother once the sails were up, but the boy got sick three times (and I think once for the Captain!).  The kids stayed up on deck and honestly I think their spirits were great.  Even though Trent proclaimed “I hate this” while throwing up, he kept drinking and eating and toughing it out.  I’m super proud of them.

Conditions chilled out overnight with the wind completely dropping off so the iron gennie was brought online.  With southerly winds forecast for Saturday night/Sunday morning, we decided to shoot for a slack tide entry at Fort Pierce inlet Saturday afternoon.  We came in amongst tons of recreational boaters and dropped the hook behind Harbour Isle.  We are happy to hang here for a bit while we look at weather windows to cross to the Bahamas!

Thanks, St. Augustine (part 2!)

Woo hoo!  So excited that we get to add a “part 2” to our STA chapter!  We skipped off our mooring ball Wednesday and anchored across the channel by marker 7.  Our plan was to hang out until about 1600 and it we didn’t get a call about the wait list, move to Vilano Beach for a relaxing holiday.  Well, at 1400 we got the call!  We were green-lighted for two more nights in the mooring field and even got to go right next to our old ball!  This also meant that we could attend the St. Augustine Cruisers Net Thanksgiving Potluck the next day!  We kept the rest of the day pretty low-key, only heading into town for another great pizza happy hour dinner before enjoying sunset from the boat.

Of course Thursday was Thanksgiving!!!  Changing from dinner for four to a potluck dish was a little scary at first, but I decided to go with a trio of roasted veggies (brussel sprouts, carrots, and potatoes) flavored with a trio of doTerra essential oils and garlic—it was delicious!

The potluck was amazing!  We saw some old friends from Herrington Harbour and met some new folks.  The kids met a few kids, but are still a little shy. Maybe Trent isn’t—he ended up down the way with another family playing football!  I’m an introvert so these things can be tough for me, but it was really a fabulous (and delicious!) event and I’m so glad that our family could be a part of it.  It’s really a great community.

Afterward we turned to laundry, showers, and preparing to leave.  Next stop, Lake Worth or Fort Pierce!

St. Augustine (part 1!)

After a MUCH more restful night anchored off Pine Island, we weighed anchor for the brief cruise down the ICW to St. Augustine!  The very professional team at the municipal marina guided us to our reserved mooring ball and we were tied up in the north mooring field just after 1100.  

Due to the holiday, we only managed to get a two-night reservation so after a quick check of the facilities we headed straight out to explore! After a quick Cuban lunch we headed to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument—pristine and educational!  From there we expanded our science studies with a tour and tasting at Whetstone Chocolates—highly recommended!  As we are on a budget, we hit Pizzalleys for their awesome weekday happy hour food and drink specials—the whole crew loved it!  We closed the night wandering around the town and enjoying the holiday lights.

After a morning repair to the dinghy engine (replacing the pull-start cord) we hit the St. Augustine Distillery for a fantastic, generous tour and tasting!  After returning our goodies to the boat and knocking out a round of mini golf, we hit Barley Republic’s happy hour before heading to our first St. Augustine Cruisers Net social at the Dog Rose Brewing Company! This is a fabulous bunch of folks, and we got to meet up with friends from our old spot in Maryland (Photo credit to “John Sparrow”)!  

We ended the night with ice cream and a walk through the city.  As first-timers we are impressed!  The marina’s amenities and staff are wonderful and the town has a lot to offer.  I’d like to visit again when it’s not a holiday week to see what the normal vibe is, but we definitely want to come back!  For now, we wait to see if our standby request for two more nights makes it through the queue! 🤞🏼

Sailing at/over anchor

Last night was a sleepless, “lessons learned” one!  Anchored off the St. John’s River before the entrance to the ICW, we were subject to strong currents and gusty winds.  We saw similar conditions in Beaufort, NC, but this was a first!  The wind had caused us to sail over our anchor chain, which then actually got stuck around our keel.  We noticed the odd motion of the boat and lots of noise on the hull and went out in the dark, in a rain shower (of course!) to discover the issue.  With the chain wrapped around the keel, I couldn’t bring it up.  And with the weird motion, we thought we might also be dragging towards another boat.  After trying some rudder maneuvering we finally had to start the engine and drive out of it.  It worked and we settled out nicely.  But after that, I could barely sleep, agonizing over every sound.  

Today we did a little research and decided to go with a shorter snubber on our chain in these conditions.  We are back in the current tonight and that (plus a two-snubber bridle setup) seems to be doing the trick.  We have long snubber lines so we can actually tie them off at midship and gets lots of stretch in windy conditions.  We have a deep keel, so current really grabs us, but so does wind with our dodger and bimini.  I guess I’m happy to be learning these tricks now—we’ve been blissfully ignorant for the past decade. 🙄

Jacksonville—A working port

Monday got off to a pretty sweet start...entered the St. John’s River from the sea on a flood tide and called ahead to Mulberry Cove Marina on NAS Jacksonville to ensure they had a transient spot for us so we didn’t waste a long slog up the river.  Easy day, right?  Well...long story short, the marina actually didn’t have a spot for us.  They didn’t have a good account of what slips were open, tried to put us in one two feet too shallow for us, blamed everything on the old hurricane damage and being “the end of the road” on base, and basically told us to “too bad, so sad” as they were closing for the day.  We walked by a slip that seemed pretty open and undamaged and somehow managed to talk them into letting us take it.  Ended up being perfect!  This isn’t the first time we have stayed here, and it’s an incredible value for military peeps, but this whole debacle was shocking.  We made our comments and hope it does something to improve the management of the operation.  

Once settled, we got to work!  The real drivers for this stop were new ID cards for everyone, FL residency and a license for the Cap’n, mail pick-up, and provisioning.  We did it all, and gave the boat a good scrub and took advantage of the free laundry.  We also managed to get some birthday and Christmas presents aboard and got new snorkel gear for the kiddos.

We want to hit St. Augustine, but with the holiday next week we could only get 2 nights.  We stayed out in JAX an extra night and now are headed toward St. Aug for a few nights of ICW anchoring before we get on a mooring there.  It’s been a nice, relaxing, southerly journey!

Weathering Beaufort

What was initially planned as a 2-day stop to wait out some gusty weather turned into a 5-night stop to let two gusty, cold, wet systems move through.  We took a $20/night mooring in Beaufort, SC and decided it was a cheap, safe place to stay put with the perks of showers, laundry, and a great town to explore.  On the one really nice day we walked around town visiting museums and the Reconstruction Era National Monument, and hitting a few shops.  It’s a lovely town!

On the rainy, raw days we completed school, watched movies, and still hit the town a bit—the kids are hearty!  We rented a car so that we could run some errands, hit the movies, and escape from a Blackbeard-themed escape room.  We took pleasure in playing board games at the local coffee shop (they serve beer and wine, too!) and Frank and I hit Hemingway’s for happy hour before a date night out.  I think we made the best of it!  Next stop, Jacksonville!

Beaufort to Beaufort

I really enjoyed our brief marina stay in Beaufort (“Bowfort”), NC! Beaufort Yacht Basin provided a safe, friendly, reasonably-priced, convenient spot for us.  Seriously, everyone was so friendly and they have a military discount. I was a fan of the showers and free laundry, but I think the whole family loved use of their golf cart!  We cruised town and got dinner Thursday with those cool wheels!  Then the adults headed to the Backstreet Pub, an old, perfectly awesome dive bar!  After school and chores Friday, we toured the Carolina Maritime Museum.  It’s great!  Great displays on the ecology, maritime economy, and of course, Blackbeard and Queen Anne’s Revenge!

We departed Saturday, just not in the morning as originally planned.  With gusts showing +10 over the forecast offshore, we opted to delay until the afternoon tide.  It was a rocky start, with 5’ swells on the port quarter.  The kiddos were in bed a lot that first day, but by Sunday we were motoring on much calmer seas. We were able to see the famous Frying Pan Shoal light, and Frank caught a bonito!

We planned to pull into Charleston Monday morning, but as we approached the channel and looked at our options (and considering we had just been to Charleston two weeks ago), we made the decision to stay offshore and shoot for Beaufort (“Bewfort”), SC.  We may have to loiter a bit after dark, but the plan it to approach as soon as it’s light and snag a mooring ball ahead of the next storm Tuesday afternoon.  Wish us luck!  For now, we are motoring across a mill pond with dolphins, jellyfish, and turtles!

First light, November 11th

Beaufort/Morehead City, NC stay

Where are we?  For the last two nights we have been anchored off of Sugarloaf Island by Morehead City.  We were going to make an outside run to Wrightsville Beach last night, but scrapped it as there were gusty conditions and sloppy seas and quite frankly, we aren’t in a huge rush!  We went ashore, grabbed lunch, and tooled around in the dinghy yesterday before making the call.  

With a strong front coming through tomorrow, we will head to our first paid marina of the trip for the next two nights.  We will explore Beaufort a bit, do some laundry, and grab a few groceries.  We see all the boats going by us to head down the ICW today, but we’re good with this.  Plan now is to head “outside” Saturday morning, perhaps all the way to Charleston!

Why Elizabeth City? Why not?!?!?!!!

As we topped off our tanks in Coinjock we were asked, “Where are you headed?”  “Elizabeth City,” I replied.  The dockhand responded, “Why would you want to go there?”  Well folks, let me tell you!

Truth be told, the Captain grew up just outside of EC, but that’s not the only reason to go this way!  Yes, I realize it is not right along the magical “magenta line” of the ICW, but the Harbor of Hospitality deserves a look.  EC offers boaters 48 hours of free dockage with multiple options in slips or along bulkheads.  Frills are minimal, but there is free WiFi and clean showers are only $5 per person for the length of your stay.  Any of the slips are walking distance to a vibrant downtown with shops and restaurants.  We tied up right at Mariner’s Wharf.  We prefer bow-in as it’s such a downtown location for added privacy and security, but note that the finger piers are really small so if you go bow-in, you will be getting on/off the boat from the bow.  Slip widths are clearly marked on the bulkhead wall (11-18’) and there is plenty of depth (20’ in our slip!).

We tied up on Halloween and swung by the Museum of the Albemarle to pay our shower fees.  I hate to admit that in all the years we have been visiting to see family, we never explored this gem!  After showers and school (and a fantastic $20 cut and style for me from Hannah at Rock Paper Scissors Salon on the wharf), we came back to the museum.  It’s very nicely done, free, and in about an hour or so you can get a good taste of the area’s history.  And one of Blackbeard’s cannons!  They were hosting tons of Halloween activities while we were there and I can see that it’s a great asset to the community.

After a little “older kid” debate, the crew decided to dress up and head out for the local Halloween festivities.  Friends had told us that trick-or-treating down Main Street was the big thing in town and since that was about a 2-minute walk away we went for it!  I have to say, this town knows how to do a fun, safe Halloween night!  Fire trucks and barricades closed off the street.  In the commercial district, businesses had set up “trunk-or-treat” for several blocks.  In the neighborhood, if folks were “open” they had to be out on their porch to greet you, and many houses were really decorated well!  Kids had a blast and came home with loads of candy!

Like I said before, lots of shops are accessible from the free slips.  Drugstore, laundromat, book store, fabric store, bakery, pizzeria, and even a Bojangles are within walking distance.  My favorite food stops from this trip are Muddy Waters (coffee shop), Island Breeze Grill (Caribbean delights and a great weekday lunch buffet), Flour Girls Bakery, Hoppin’ Johnz (new South cuisine), Cypress Creek Grill (modern American cuisine), and my absolute #1–Ghost Harbor Brewing Company.  The kids enjoyed all of these, but we all really love the places in Pailin’s Alley.  The brewery has great beer, games, and free popcorn—we love it!

So why not give Elizabeth City a look on your next time through?