May 16 - We don't have any regrets. I still can't picture myself looking at anything but water so it is good that we left the Bridge of Lions to our south as we left St. Augustine instead of the north. They did a wonderful job at the restoration project, don't you think?

Bottom you have to love the guy Flagler since he took his hotel and gave it to the College. We actually have an acquaintance who's daughter graduated from the College. Too cool and too much history, it is just wonderful.

To the bottom right you can see that the Fort is still there and looking good. I know you've read in our past logs about the inlet bleeding red from the blood of past battles but I also know that you, like me, hope that those days are ended. I only hope that the battles we face today economically will be won with prudence and reasonable values.

As we passed the St. John's River we saw the ship you see to the left being unloaded and also the power plants below left with their cooling towers. It was pretty obvious we weren't in the Bahamas anymore.

Deb has been taking her turn driving from time to time and I never get enough pictures of her on our website. So, here's one and she's smiling!

As we headed into Fernandina to anchor, we saw this container ship entering the entrance to be unloaded. It is pretty cool to know that we will be using a pass in the morning that we won't hit the bottom.

I was wanting to get off to a very early start and make a longer trip but the bottom line was Deb explained that this wasn't too smart. So, I planned a different trip.

We left the next morning with another container ship coming in at 6:15 a.m. We had pulled anchor and I said goodnight to Deb so she was back asleep before we hit the pass. We passed the container ship on the 1 whistle (port to port) and headed to sea. The thing was the winds were so light we were going to have to motor sail all day. It took almost an hour to get out of the pass and we passed the Fort you see to the bottom left on the way out.

In addition, we passed the shrimp boat you see below as he was finishing his day's work and we were just starting ours.

Our destination was Doboy pass. Now I have to ask you, don't you think the spelling is a bit off? I think that Doboy was really meant to be Dubois but the people at the time just didn't get it right. Regardless, Doboy it is and that was where we were headed.

We passed a bunch of anchored shrimp boats who were sleeping for their rest. It saves them quite a bit of money in fuel to anchor out instead of coming in each day.

This is the area of 9 foot tides and as we approached Hell's Gate which is known for bad currents and shoaling, we were getting ready to go head to head with the shrimp boat you see to the left. Since we were in Hell's Gate 3 minutes before he was, he had to wait. You have to picture this pass because it is about as wide as his spreaders and playing chicken with a shrimp boat is about as smart as going to sea in a hurricane. You loose in either case.

 Deb took over driving and I started preparing the Conch Salad. It occurred to me that most of you reading this site have never seen a cleaned Conch. To the right are a few cleaned conch. Well, almost clean for me. I take off the excess material and get it down to all white muscle. Now for the Conch Salad.

In the states you would never eat raw fish. However, you would eat Ceviche. Ceviche is a fish that has been "cooked" in lime and/or lemon juice. The acid "cooks" the meat. It is just that in the Bahamas they don't call it Conch Ceviche. They call it Conch Salad. Pretty simple really. I pound the Conch so it has been tenderized which is an extra step from what the Bahamians do but makes it really tender. Then add the chopped onions, green peppers, and tomatoes. In addition, I wanted to add the goat peppers/jalapeno's but didn't have them so I added a teaspoon of cajun seasoning for some heat and salt.

If you are going to have Conch Salad (below right) you should also have the Bahamian Mac and Cheese which you see below left. What a great meal we were going to have tonight.

 As we were getting ready to anchor I saw this helicopter getting ready to "impress" his friends. I'm definitely one to have fun in an airplane but I really do believe the 500 foot clearance rule is for a reason and that reason is that engines can die or things can break. It may be ok to endanger your own life (no) but what about the people below left. Do you think they signed a release? I'll bet not and this guy just broke a rule he shouldn't have.

We headed into a creek for the night to anchor just south and east of Savannah. I pulled off to the side of the creek hoping that we would be able to swing from an outgoing tide to incoming and not go aground. I actually did a bit more than hope but I watched it pretty closely as we swung around at low tide. We missed the bank by about 20-25 feet. I'm not worried about the reversal because we will be 9 feet higher and in the morning I should wake up to about the same sight.

Just in case you are wondering the water right now is up in the grass.

Tomorrow we should be anchored in Beaufort, SC and we will be north of our line of insurance for hurricane season. We will spend a couple of days and then we will be off to Charleston, SC.

 May 20 - Let's go back a few days. As we were heading to Beaufort, the landscape changed again. It had already changed from palm trees and grass to marsh lands and now we are starting to see more trees. We are still in the lands of higher tides and they are ranging between 6 and 8 feet up for high tide. The water isn't as clear as it was even in Florida so I'm starting to get some staining on the sides of the boat - another project I need to accomplish.

We went by some areas where it was raining and it was clearly going to get to us at some point. When we just didn't know.

Beaufort is a great town and the anchorage is good too but it is fairly deep by our standards, 20 feet. There isn't room closer to shore because that is where all the locals store their boats and they've taken up the shallower parts of the anchorage. It really didn't matter because the holding is good so we threw out the anchor once we found the right spot and let it dig into that muddy bottom. You can see we were pretty close to the marina so our dinghy trip won't be long on this stop.

 We stayed on the boat after we arrived to make sure the anchor stayed set when the tide shifted and also because there was thunder in those clouds.

While we didn't get a thunderstorm ourselves, we did get some rain and everything worked out just fine at the anchorage.

You can see Freedom is anchored just fine on the outskirts of the anchorage when I took this picture the next morning from the Ladies Island Swing Bridge.

 I mentioned marshes before and you've see them from the side but I thought the ones here across from the Beaufort Marina are very nice. I got this picture again from the bridge.

Speaking of pictures from bridges, I also took this panoramic view of the anchorage and town so you would have a better idea of the area. I know you've read all about Beaufort from my logs of 2007 so I won't repeat everything again here. However, we do enjoy this town and were looking forward to hearing some good music in the restaurants along the waterway.

That was until we found out they have passed a new sound ordinance that says you can't have music louder than 85 decibels, in other words not very loud, at your property line. Yes the "sound police" walk around and give tickets. Music was now out unless you are into standing inside which you can do anywhere. Sounds like the leadership needs to think about banning Harley's, weed eaters, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, etc, etc. You get the picture our should I say the sound.

 Since I was going to make two bike trips across the swing bridge, I thought for my non-boating readers I would show you a bridge in action.

You might wonder why I was riding my bike across this bridge for two different trips? I needed some parts from the hardware store along with a pretty good list from the grocery store so that simply necessitated two trips. They were great and I enjoyed both of them since it had been awhile since I had been riding.

If you've read my site long, you know Garry and Shirlene who own a Schucker called Zipadedoda I just had to take this picture for them of a Schucker we met at Beaufort. The people on board had a problem and ended up with water in their engine. He was able to change the oil 3 times and fix the problem and they were off on Wednesday at the same time we were. Garry and Shirlene, I'm not trying to say you should be out here but remember the saying - "Never get off the boat?" I'm betting you wish you were back on your's right now.

Actually, I really wanted to show them the picture I took of Breezy's transom. I thought the extension was pretty cool and gave them a great transom deck to enter and leave the dinghy/water from.

The picture below is the only house picture I took this time. I've said it before but these houses remind me of the homes from Forest Gump and The Big Chill. Great views, trees, porches, and windows. I'm looking forward to getting to Charleston.

As we were working our way up the waterway I just had to take this picture of the traveler you see to the left. Paddling his canoe up the waterway and even though he didn't answer the radio, I'm pretty darn sure he is headed back to Canada. I just wondered where his courtesy flag was.....

Deb is driving the boat as I write this and we are headed for another cut that can have 4 knot currents. Sounds like fun doesn't it. We really are looking forward to spending some time in Charleston so you should look forward to some pictures from that event soon.

 Problem was, it isn't here! So why, and I do mean why, is it on the chart? I kept looking for a bridge thinking I was in the wrong place but the bottom line is the bridge isn't here and I guess they charted something that wasn't built. I guess I need a new GPS. Of course what it really made me hope is that they haven't charted an inlet that hasn't been built yet. Wouldn't that be fun.

We arrived at the cut and even though I had it planned pretty close, the current was still much faster than what the computer told me it was going to be. We were only making 2.8-2.9 knots through the cut so that meant we had a 3-3.1 knot current against us. No problem, we were going to be early for the bridge anyway so we just went through slowly. The thing about this much current is the shifting of the boat verses the speed moving forward. Afterall, we are still moving at the same speed through the water it is just the turbulence of the water that makes us have to drive a bit more aggressively in the cut. No problems.

We arrived at the anchorage in Charleston and started looking for an anchorage location. I searched and ultimately came back up to a point that was between the two rivers and should have a minimal impact by current.

John G.,if you look really close you will see the boat in the foreground that looks just like your old boat. I thought we were cruising again together.

The tide shifted and the excitement began. I remember when Bill and Christy had to stay on their boat when we anchored here last time because somebody had anchored too close and they had to fend off. Wait until you see the pictures that follow.

To the left the guy with the tan sail covers was yelling at the guy in the green boat who ultimately moved. However, the people below couldn't yell loud enough because the people on the cat weren't there. I took ton's of pictures to give you an idea of what it is like out here. We stay on our boat through a tidal shift just to make sure we are anchored properly and other boats aren't a problem. At least for the first shift. I can't say everyone does this as you will see below. One thing you really want to notice is the people on the blue boat moving around to fend off the cat.

Ultimately, I went over in my dinghy to see if I could help but the owners of the cat were just arriving so I wasn't needed. We tried.

It really looks like they should have hit a couple of times but I was told they were able to fend off each time. I would have been a bit PI???? I mean upset.

 I got into trouble because I wanted to take a good quality close-up picture of some of the work the ladies do. They said, "NO PICTURES." Now I didn't go into the fact that I happen to have a website and this might actually be good for them. Instead, I walked across the street and with the wonderful lens I got the best I could get. Ok, it isn't great but still it isn't bad since I was about 70-80 yards away. You decide on the pictures below.

To the left is one zoomed in slightly, then to the lower left is zoomed in almost all the way. Bottom is altered on the computer to show the workman or should I say workwomanship. Sorry I couldn't get a true close-up so you could see the cane itself.

I always thought it was great that they provided a rubber shoe for the horses verses the steel shoes that are typical. It made me think perhaps they will be inventing the gel cells for horses next. Perhaps Nike can come up with a gel horse shoe.

We took off this morning, Saturday, on a tour to take pictures of a number of houses. This town is wonderful for the architecture and the twist of art. Below you can see a wonderful home along the battery and out front is a dog keeping watch. Just in case you can't see it in the picture to the left, I zoomed in for you on the right. Cool Dog.

All of these homes have a porch that provides shade and also provides a way for the people to open windows and get a great ocean breeze. It kept the homes cool in the day before we decided to try to destroy the ozone with R-12. Now we have better refrigerants but still can't figure out how to really live in peace with the environment.

You may have noticed the doors such as on the house to the left or in the home bottom left. If you look close, such as in the blow-up below, you will notice the front door is really to a porch. Such is the architecture of the southern homes in this Charleston area. They would turn the homes sideways so you could have a bigger home along with the large porch. The door was still on the walkway providing an entrance to their wonderful home.

 They even have the attached homes with shared walls. I think this area is called the Rainbow Area just because of the variety of colors of the homes.

Below left is simply a unique gutter guppy that I had to take a picture of. I hope I remember this whenever we do end up with a place on land. Humor is a good thing.

Then we went to lunch today and the most unique thing I saw was the picture above the hostess station. You should study this picture. It is really cool. You can pick out Elvis, Marilyn, Regan, Gorbachof, Nixon, Einstein, James Dean, W. C. Fields, and a bunch of other people that you never knew were hanging out at this particular place in Charleston.

  Then tonight we had the wonderful view of Charleston Harbor with a full rainbow. It was beautiful and we only had a bit of rain.

Tomorrow morning we will pick up all the wet stuff and get rid of some too. Diesel, Gas, Water, and of course pump-out. Then we are off moving. We should hit Georgetown on Monday. Then we move again for another 150 miles to Wrightsville Beach where we will meet up with a person that has been following our website. It should be a great time.

May 25 - We left Charleston a couple of days ago and the first thing I have to say is I am sometimes just lucky. I try to plan things and discount the effects of luck but in the last few days I have to admit I've been lucky. Why? Tides. Yes, just simply it was luck because I was leaving and because of tides we caught the right bridges with an outgoing tide.

You can see the Fort that guarded Charleston to the right as we were heading for the intercoastal and the push that would take us north.

As we moved through the day, I kept thinking we should see Gator's soon. I kept looking and Deb said, "watch out for that log." I said, "that log is moving." She said, "no, it's a log." I grabbed the camera and took a picture of the moving log. Later she said, boy that log sure moved fast. I showed her a picture of the log below. . . . Gator territory.

We had the tides in our favor for much of the day so we were able to skip the anchorage in the marshes for an anchorage in Georgetown, S.C. To the lower right you can see a picture of the town clock which they restored and I got a good picture of on my walk the next morning.

Before I get to my walk, I just have to add that on our trip through the marshes it reminded me of the Fly killing fields. We had been bitten by fly's so many times that out came the fly swatters and the killing was to begin. I think I killed 200+ of them in a matter of a few hours which made time pass pretty good. Deb thought it was more like 500. Who knows but I would choose the former verses the later.

In the morning we pulled anchor at about 8 a.m. and headed over to the town dock where they let you pull up during the day. We did and I went off for a walk while Deb took care of her morning things. You can see they have some very nice homes in Georgetown that would rival the ones in Charleston. The sign below left is about the house to the left.

The home to the lower right is just one that I took an interest in. I just thought the rounded roof and porch were very inventive plus they provided a look that wasn't there on the rest of the homes. Good/Bad - Who knows it was what it was.

Then came more beautiful homes but I know you've already seen a bunch already so I'll cut back just a bit.

Across the street I came upon a sign telling about a "Champion Oak." You have to remember that a Champion tree is on that has been judged by those who know, to be the oldest in the U.S. Now that is OLD.

You can see the tree to the lower right. I was truly impressed with the size of the trunk and limbs. They were just huge!

And of course another nice home.

After an hour I arrived back at the town dock at the end of the park and there was Freedom waiting. Deb wasn't quite ready so off I went in another direction to get a picture of the old Steel Mill. When we came through here three years ago, the mill was operating. However, it is now closed. In a conversation with a local, he told me they were trying to get it reopened. I wish them luck but wonder if it will actually happen even in this economy.

Then there were the birds. The ospreys have huge nests and you can see them to the left and the lower left.

Bottom right is just another bend in the waterway taking us to our nights anchorage.

We were hopeful to pull up and have dinner at a place we had visited before but found Bucksport was closed. The marina and the restaurant were shut down. I guess it is a sign of the economy and it is too bad because they always had good food and good fuel prices.

Today we went through the ROCK PILE. Ok, I covered this a few years ago but the bottom line is this is one of if not the most dangerous places on the waterway. When we went through a couple of years ago at low tide you could see the rocks jutting out next to the channel with streaks of gelcoat on them. They don't put markers where I would put them - where the rocks are. Instead they put them randomly so you have to follow the best advice which is get in the middle and stay in the middle. If you meet someone - DON'T GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE! Then it won't be your gelcoat on the rock.

I think I saw 5 signs in 10 miles about Tow Boat U.S. saying they could come save you. I think they cut that channel through rock just to support Tow Boat U.S.

Don't get me wrong, I have unlimited Tow Boat U.S. insurance and can't understand anyone who doesn't. It is too good of a deal and I've never used it. It will only take once before I am paid off in full. On the other hand, I hoping I will never need it for something like the Rock Pile. On the other hand, punching a hole in the boat offshore from an unseen object - now there is a claim I would want help with.

Then we arrived at the last pontoon bridge on the waterway and one that looks like it will be out of business in the next few years.

We got stuck because of low water and threw out our anchor for almost an hour before they decided to open the bridge.

Above you can see the pontoon bridge in position. Then to the left you can see it starting to be drug to the side. Drug you say....

Yes, you can see to the lower left if you look really close you can see a cable that is hooked to the right side of the road which is to pull it back. Now you might be thinking, what is up with that cable when the boats come through? Good question. They drop it to the bottom of the sea and you simply power over it so that is why when there are really low seas they don't open the bridge. They are afraid a sailboat will hook up with the cable and then all *(#Y happens.

The picture to the lower right shows the bridge in the retracted position and we are headed through. A good time is had by all.

And as we were heading for another pass we found this happy family out for a day on the boat. I think they were actually off on the beach and thought they anchored in the right place but they obviously didn't realize there was a six foot tide. They will simply have to wait for the tide to come up and catch some ray's. I'm sure he heard an earful about his preparation! Perhaps that is why they are at opposite ends of the boat.

Tonight we are anchored in a great spot only 5 miles from Cape Fear. Doesn't that name strike a fear in your belly or should I say heart. There is a good reason for the name. When the winds and tides are opposing, there can be eight foot and much higher waves that are very sharp, now that can strike fear. Tomorrow we will leave at 6:30 a.m. and catch a pushing tide (I told you I was lucky) to go up Cape Fear about 15 miles before cutting through a canal and back into more protected water. Then we are off to Wrightsville Beach to meet up with Ross. Ross is a person that has been following our website for years and we get to meet him on Thursday. You already know we will have pictures.

 May 29 - We arrived in Wrightsville Beach on Wednesday. The passage through Cape Fear was almost as rough as the passage across the Gulf Stream. Why? The wind forecast was for 10-15 knots at 6 a.m. and when we arrived in Cape Fear we saw as high as 29 knots. A bit of a difference don't you think. Before I had looked at the winds, I had already decided that if it was 20 knots or more I wouldn't go. Not that we couldn't, I just hate getting beat up by winds coming against the current. The waves stack up and are very close together. We took several waves over the front and then up to our main window. None over the boat but that is because we slowed down and moved way over to the side of the channel trying to get out of the current.

We met up with Ross on Thursday and had a wonderful visit. Ross has been following our site for quite a while and on top of visiting us on our boat, he also took us on some errands so we could pick up some items from West Marine and Wal-Mart. We had a wonderful day talking about cruising and I found out he was a professional photographer. He gave me several tips which you won't see in the pictures I took so far but hopefully you will see them in the future. He also gave us a present which was a picture he took while he was on the boat. I thought it was great and showed me that I need to thing more depth in my pictures too. His camera was of course pro quality and he just had that eye for what would work. Once again, it was great to meet Ross and we are happy that we've provided a bit of enjoyment for him with our website.

The sunfish racers came out after Ross left and were having quite the battle just up from our boat.

Then came a guy in with a monohull, and I'm not opposed to monohull's that anchored about 20 yards from our boat. This was about the stupidest move I've ever seen because there was lots of room. I didn't say anything because I didn't think he would hit us. I just ran our generator and laughed. The next morning at about 5:30 I heard a noise that was our dinghy hitting his boat. Oops on his part. He pulled anchor and I saw him moving around the front of us and then re-anchoring. No, he didn't go to that empty space. Instead, he went 20 yards off the other side of the boat. You can't fix Stupid. Then, because the current and wind were opposing his bow came within 20 feet of our boat and he backed off with his anchor and set another anchor. I don't normally attract Stupid people but this guy was just magnetically attracted to us. Perhaps I need to go back down to Georgia and go through that demagnetizing coil the subs use to get rid of my Stupid magnetic field.

We pulled anchor as planned at 8:15 and went for fuel then to catch the 9 am bridge.

Gemini's are everywhere. This one is named "Evil Ways" and we passed it this morning (Saturday.) It was a newer version and I'm sure the owner was having a great time with the boat.

We then passed this piece of waterfront property that Deb and I might be able to pick up. Ok, it doesn't have much space and there aren't any utilities such as water, electric, or sewer, but still it is waterfront.

You can tell to the lower right that it was pretty cool this morning. I'm betting in the middle 60's which for us is cool. Jimmy Buffett really enjoyed hanging out inside the sweatshirt before coming out to tear up the strap that holds my sunglasses on.

We arrived in Beaufort, NC about 1:20 p.m. After putting down 2 anchors in a narrow anchorage we hung out for a while just to make sure we would stay out of the channel. Of course we did and then headed in to town to check out the shops and pick up an early dinner. The current was supposed to shift at 6 p.m. so I had to be back on the boat before the change. ( A Jim rule just so you know. Always be on the boat for the first tidal shift.)

We walked the shops and were happy to see they were all still in business and reasonably priced. After buying nothing - we have nothing to throw away - we checked out the working wood boat workshop before getting our late lunch early dinner.

This wooden boat workshop is cool because they have classes and the shop is really well organized although full.

Bottom right you can see some of the frames that are used for the construction templates.

We sat there at our early dinner and really enjoyed the show. What show? Docking of course. You see the lady on the dock in the picture to the right? Her job is to keep all these credit card skippers who can afford a boat but no boating instruction from wiping out their boat and someone else's. She is amazing! She would run from helping someone wanting fuel to someone wanting to dock and go for food. She was the only one on the dock (and in the boats) that knew what she was doing. Truly, these people would come in with no dock lines attached with a current coming into their boats. They would get sideways and somehow she would pull it off that no boats were hurt.

Therefore, I proclaim Cindy to be the Queen of the Docks at Beaufort, N. C.

Deb and I had a great time watching and the food was good too.

 As we walked back to the dinghy dock I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the Post Office was for sale. I started telling Deb that it must be because we are spending so much more than taxes will support the government has decided it must start selling property. Just think, the Smithsonian may be for sale soon in Washington, D.C.

No, a local told me. They moved the Post Office and now this property is for sale for only 5 million bucks. It's waterfront too!

Problem is if they sell this piece of property then I just have to wonder if the dinghy dock will be closed too.

 We headed back to our anchorage and the current had slacked at low tide. Our boat was turned into the wind but as you can see, we aren't the ones in the channel. It is the other cat that is in the channel. The reason is we had two anchors out close to the side of the channel and he had one. Since it is a holiday weekend then people are patient. Up towards town people are anchoring in almost the middle of the channel which was amazing to me.

We will be hanging out here tomorrow morning and going in for an early lunch waiting for the tide to shift again. Then we will pull our anchors and be off to an anchorage before going on to New Bern on Monday. It looks like we will arrive a day before we planned but that is good because we both have projects we need to accomplish.

Hopefully we will get some pictures of the wild horses tomorrow morning before we leave.

 May 29 later - Here we are all lined up. A monohull, an island.... you get the idea.

The sun was starting to get ready to get ready to set and in came the horses.

Ross, thanks because I did use a number of variations on the settings to try and get some more depth of exposure.

These horses are wild and live on the island. As you can see, they really enjoy eating the tender vegetation that grows along the waterline. We had just gone through low tide and they were walking the shoreline eating away. We felt very lucky because they probably move up and down the island eating their way around allowing the vegetation to grow about 4-5 days between each "eating."

If you have an itch, sometimes you have to scratch it.

This is one of the coolest parts of Beaufort. There are restaurants everywhere there is water but not all of the towns have wild horses.

Just so you know, we just volunteered to go to Louisiana and help in the rescue efforts for the Audubon society. We aren't trained to rescue birds but still we just had to try. Jimmy Buffett said we had to do it.

If they say yes, we will go to plan C and put the boat someplace, buy a car, and head straight into the mess to try and help. Afterall, which is a better calling? You already know. Problem is we aren't trained so who knows what will happen. Regardless we feel good about filling out the application and it is in their hands now.