Rain on Skidaway Island; whatever will we do?

                                               Sally biking on Skidaway Island yesterday

                                                   Shrimpers at Darien, GA

                                                     Public square in Savannah

                                                   Old moat at Fort Frederica

                 Fortification fortitian studying fascinating fortuitious fortifications at Fort Frederica

Well, there are all sorts of important activities available to us today, one of which is to write up a new blog! Other important activities might include getting in our daily 10,000 steps on our Fitbits, changing a fuel filter, stripping off some more teak to prep it for refinishing, business followup for our move to the Chesapeake, boat cleaning, applying "sunscreen" on the dinghy, throwing out some unused storage containers, watching movies, reading three books I'm behind on, doing my "yogabells" workout and sweeping the boat for stowaways.

Today we sit at the dock, in the rain in a marina called Delegal on Skidaway Island, neither of which I had ever heard of in all of our trips up and down the IntraCoastal Waterway. It costs us only $0.94/ft, one of the very cheapest marinas we have ever stayed in. On top of that, most of the cheapest marinas we have stayed in look and act cheap, with falling apart docks, bad electric, filthy or non-existent shower/toilets, etc. This place is really nice, with free kayaks, bikes, all the amenities. And yesterday we were given the keys to a golf cart and went way up-island to a shopping center where I picked up a prescription and we got a few groceries. We then biked all the way to the end of the place along some really beautiful bike trails. The people here are friendly and almost considerate of bikers, in stark contrast to Florida where it seems motorists are trying to eradicate the entire biking community by either running them over or frightening them into more indoor activities or over the border.

We had been docked at Hidden Harbor Marina in Brunswick for nine days. We used that time and a rental car to make several trips to West Marine, explore Fort Frederica, St. Simon's Island, historic Brunswick and two trips to Savannah. This is another great East Coast town worth more than a day. We toured the Mercer Williams house featured in a great Savannah book titled, "Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil," which I bought and is in my reading queue. We toured the house of Juliet Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. We ate lunch overlooking the Savannah waterfront and biked up and down the beautiful streets of the historic district of Savannah, and just had a delightful time there in spectacular weather. Put Savannah, St. Augustine and Charleston on your "must see" list.

The rest of our time at the Brunswick marina was spent managing the place. Yes, you heard it, Sally and I were marina managers for about a day and a half while Bobbie, the real manager went to Jacksonville to bring her boat back after a bottom job. We answered queries from fellow mariners, made reservations, collected money, docked boats, restocked toilet paper, hosed bird poop from the docks (we found out that birds have no sphincters. Who knew?), and pushed tons of matted swamp grass away from docks and boats. We felt so important! And, in return, we got to stay there for two free days. It was fun. And we plan to leave "Adirondack" there in November and December when we come home for the holidays.

Worth noting is B & J's Seafood and Steakhouse, a place that Bob Meyenburg and I were driven to years ago by some cruisers at the marina who recognized Adirondack when we came through. They  were shocked that we have lived as long as we have without knowing about it. Well, we went to West Marine and heard the same thing from a guy there and I realized we were talking about the same place. We dove up there to find 50-100? people standing outside and/or waiting in their vehicles for up to and hour and a half for a phone call to go into this small, very unfancy spot with the best shrimp and oysters we have ever had, hands down. If you're ever in Darien, GA, it's worth the wait. On Fridays and Saturdays you may have to park in Atlanta. On our way north after Brunswick, we anchored six miles downstream on the ICW and dinghied all the way up there to eat once more. 

After we left there we tried a new anchorage just off St. Catherine's Island, where the New York Zoological Society (Bronx Zoo) is supposedly breeding endangered animals. The place itself is off limits for cruisers, but we thought we would at least be able to see something there of note, sort of like Jurassic Park with half-eaten volunteers and such, but were terribly disappointed. It was also blowing like stink and we just didn't like it, so we pulled up and went to one of our favorite anchorages at sleepy Kilkenny, and home of one of the best seafood restaurants in the entire world. We invited the English folks in "Concerto," the beautiful sailboat that pulled in after us to dinner with us. Turns out they had sailed that boat across the ATLANTIC OCEAN, making our meager 45,000 miles of cruising sort of like walking across the street against a traffic signal in comparison. Wow. They were really interesting and we hope to see them again somewhere.

Still raining, and it may do it all day. Down to the fuel filters I go....

They say that is really what cruising is all about, fixing your boat in exotic and expensive locations. But I cannot speak ill of Adirondack. He has been sooo good in the boat repair category, with very few problems in two years of pretty steady cruising. If I were superstitious, I would never type words like that.

Capt. Jeff

The Rich Are Different From You and Me... They Have a Lot More Money

We have been spending time among the Rich and Famous in Georgia, or at least among their previous abodes. We crossed into Georgia and went up the St Marys River to dock at Lang's Marina, quite the seedy place in a lovely little town. The docks were good, but many of the power pedestals were not working or leaning sideways. We walked out of the marina and found a golf cart waiting to give a tour of the town for $5 a piece. Richard, the tour guide and commodore of the local yacht club, drove us around the town for a delightful view of the buildings, cemetery and site of a possible new town marina. The next day I spent hours using the free WiFi at the St Marys Visitor Center working on the FAFSA and PROFILE forms for Adam's college financial aid application. In the afternoon, we had a great bike ride outside of town up to the naval submarine base and exploring an historic tabby (a building material of oyster shells, lime, sand and water) sugar mill.

I finished the college forms the next morning (hurrah!!) and we left after lunch with the falling tide to make the short trip over to Cumberland Island, a National Seashore and the former home of Thomas Carnegie (Andrew's younger brother) and his wife Lucy and their nine children. We dropped anchor and dinghied to the dock at the south end of the island and once again walked to the ruins of the main house, Dungeness, built by Thomas and Lucy in the 1880's and that burned in the 1950's. We saw a flock of wild turkeys with the two toms showing off their beautiful tails and two of the wild horses for which the island is famous. We walked to the beach and circled back west to the dock and back to the boat.

We were back on the ICW the next day and anchored in the Brickhill River at the very north end of Cumberland Island. We took the dinghy down the river to Plum Orchard, the mansion Lucy Carnegie built for one of her sons as a wedding present. There were not supposed to any public tours, but one of the rangers invited us to join the private group he was taking through the house, so we got to see one of the other still standing buildings from that era. The house was huge with thick inlaid oak floors, a Tiffany glass chandelier, chestnut paneling in the "Gun Room," many bedrooms and an indoor pool. Quite the place to spend the winter months.

We crossed the St Andrew Inlet the next morning with much calmer water than we had on the southern crossing and dropped the anchor just off Jekyll Island, the winter retreat of the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Rockefellers and many of their friends. The Jekyll Island Club opened in 1888 as a place for the wealthy to go for January till the end of March. A beautiful big hotel was built then later many if the club members built "cottages" nearby. We arrived in time for Sunday brunch at the hotel, an elegant affair with champagne and delicious food. Our server grew up near the Adirondacks and the hostess had lived in Minnesota so it felt like old home week. We then took the trolley tour around the historic district which included entry into two of the cottages - they did live well. The next day we took a bike ride around most of the island and got to see the more developed, modern parts of the island.

Now we are just north of Brunswick, GA, tucked into a marina for the next week. We rented a car and have been over to St Simons Island yesterday and to the old downtown of Brunswick today. Tomorrow we'll head up to Savannah for a rainy day of touring the town. We are getting boat jobs done and are waiting for a package from home. It's nice to slow down and spend some time in one place for a bit before working our way further north. Sally

New Friends Old Friends in the Oldest City

           

We just spent a week in St Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously settled city (by Europeans) in the US. The city will celebrate its 450^th year in 2015. We picked up Artis and Steven, friends from church who had purchased a week on the boat at the auction in November, near Jacksonville and wandered our way south. We had some coolish days anchoring out and cruising along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), arriving in St Augustine to sunny days and warmer weather. It was fun to share the boat and show them some of Florida. We all got in lots of walking and exploring the old city, the fort – Castillo de San Marcos, St George Street, the beach (Artis and Steven), and the Farmers’ Market and WestMarine (Sally and Jeff).

We said farewell to Artis and Steven, off to visit family in Gainesville, and the next day met up with Mary and Dennis from “Tortola” for lunch – friends from the Great Loop trip. It was wonderful to see them and catch up as they head back to Ontario for more travel adventures and a summer raising grass fed beef.

That evening we picked up friends from Stillwater, Dan and Linda, and had them on the boat for two nights and a short, windy cruise down to Marineland for a great walk on the beach there. Dan is an electronics guru and was able to tune up the radar overlay on the chart plotter on the way, making Capt Jeff very happy! It was a treat to have them visit.

After a day of laundry, getting the brand new dinghy motor fixed (plugged carburetor – still under warranty), and a gathering of the members of the St Augustine Cruisers Net, we set off back up the ICW. We will wend our way slowly back up to Charleston by mid April, exploring old and new places along the way. 

We went back to the free dock near Jacksonville and Jeff dinghied all the way into town (20 miles!) and discovered a Gumbo Competition and a good lunch. Sally spent the day reading and knitting and also had a good lunch on the boat.

It was great next to pick up a mooring ball in Fernandina Beach and spend a few days really seeing the city, including a trolley tour to the beach, great fried clams and ice cream, reprovisioning at Winn Dixie and wandering among the shops in town.

Now we are in St Mary's, Georgia, a sleepy little town near Cumberland Island. We are tied up at Lang's Marina for a dollar a foot with power only on some of the pedestals, but we found a working one and the batteries are getting equalized even as I type. We are getting all the electronics charged up and will have a good bike ride later today. Tomorrow we are off to Jeykll Island to see the "cottages" of the rich and famous, now a National Park. Sally

Moving, moving, moving.... SOUTH!

 Here is part of the crew at Kingsley Plantation on Amelia Island. This is now a park that teaches us about one of the many large plantations that grew cotton and other products using thousands of slaves. The buildings shown here are pretty much all the same size, 12 X 20, where families lived to provide labor for these incredibly wealthy landowners. The story of slavery is a very ugly one. There were many powerful people all over the nation that thrived on the system, especially in New York and Rhode Island, of all places. I, of the north remember being taught most of the shame was souther.

I'm chowing down at an oyster roast at our marina. You do learn how to open the little buggers, which is a lot easier when they are steamed than when they're raw. People down here are serious about their oysters. I prefer them fried, of course.

The big news on this blog is the addition of Charlie to the Adirondack family. We are just so excited to have him aboard that we're going to wait to see how he works out before we introduce him.

We left the marina on February 25 and motored down to a favorite anchorage called "Bull River," somewhere on the Intra Coastal Waterway in South Carolina. It's hard to tell where you are in these parts because the waterway isn't anywhere near any population centers for much of the time. If it weren't for our GPS system which tracks us exactly to an accuracy of six feet (really) we would be lost. I remember this anchorage because Bob Meyenburg and I got caught on a crab pot line last time we were through here. the water was cold, murky with a very fast current. I did not want to dive in to free it. Thankfully we had installed a line cutter at our last haulout and it did the job.

After another night in a nondescript spot called Herb River (and you can see where all these are by looking at our SPOT locations on this page) we pulled in to the Kilkenny River. This is a tiny little place in Georgia that has a fantastic restaurant called "107," noted for the marker on the ICW. People come all the way here from Savannah to eat and we can see why. There is a beautiful and calm place to anchor in the river just about the town, just make sure you slow down as you motor through town.

The weather is getting cooler. We tried out our electric motorcycle vest for the first time. Many boats like this have enclosed flybridges so you can drive from up top without wind and rain. Ours doesn't. The vests help. We woke to 31 one morning. But it was -20 in Minnesota.

We anchored right outside Cumberland Island and dinghied ashore for an eight mile hike on the wide Atlantic beach and viewed the remains of the Vanderbilt mansion. Wow, those folks had some real money. This area is right next to Kings Island, a huge submarine base. We went through here once and were halted by the coast guard because we looked threatening to the huge submarine that passed by. We kept our depth charges well hidden.

We stopped at Fernandina Beach and tied up to provision for Steve and Artis, our service auction guests. We also had a bit of rope work that needed to be done, that being to re-secure the anchor line to the chain. Someday we are going to learn this art, but to have it fail would be a disaster, so we barter the procedure with wine or cash. This time we found a local captain who slept until noon and showed up then at our jobsite with one open can of beer and a reaserve in the pocket. After three tries (and all the beer) it looks like he got the job done. We'll see if it comes loose!

So later on we walked a considerable distance to the grocery store, expecting to take a cab back with our provisions. Well, who did we meet at the grocery store? Our favorite captain, that's who, reprovisioning with beer, and a few vegetables, I should add, but just including the beer makes it more salty. He had arranged for a couple locals in an old broken down pickup to transport him back and forth to the store and extended their services to us, so we got a ride back to the marina, bouncing along in the back. We were the only ones without a beer can, but made it safe and sound.

This morning we are at Beach Marina in Jacksonville Beach. It's 55, warmer than it has been. It was 82 and gorgeous when we picked up Artis and Steve at Jacksonville, but colder now. And this brings up another great story. We were parked there at the free dock at Jim King Park waiting for them to show up from an expensive cab ride when Brown Alton showed up. He describes himself as a gretter and all-around doer of good deeds. He insisted upon driving them back from the airport and provided them with quite the cook's tour on lots of other stories.

Somehow my system here is going to let me post pictures again, so I might have even more next time.  Capt. Jeff

Back in the Saddle Again

Adirondack waited patiently for us at the St John's Yacht Harbor near Charleston, SC. Jeff and David flew home from there in November for Thanksgiving, doctor visits and a new aortic valve for Jeff on Christmas Eve at the Mayo. It was not our best holiday, but the new pig/cow valve was a good present for Jeff even if he did spend Christmas Day in the ICU. He bounced back fast - out of the hospital four days after surgery and has healed up well. He finished up his cardiac rehab and feels back to 100% - probably even better than before now that all his blood is going out to his body instead of sloshing back through the leaky valve. He has a few more weeks of taking Coumadin (a blood thinner) then can stop and just take his blood pressure meds. It was lovely to be in Minnesota and see family and friends, work a bit at WestMarine (Jeff) and at
two walk-in clinics (Sally), play in the snow, see the ice caves near Bayfield and spend time at Dry Dock - our home in Stillwater.

We ducked out of Minnesota on Tuesday, missing the big snow storm on Thursday that caused the governor to call out the National Guard and declare an emergency. Great timing on our part - Jeff's weather karma continues to work well. We flew to Charleston and the marina manager (a former Minnesotan) picked us up. The boat looked good but needed some clean up and reprovisioning. We are slowly getting projects done - cleaning, new water pump and new sending unit for the black water tank monitor (yuck!). We swapped out our folding bicycles that had been recalled by WestMarine at the local store - we had to say goodbye to "Ruby" and "Rusty," our sweet red bikes and now have two black ones that we have named "Beauty" and "Bart." We took a long bike ride today over to the James Island County Park where there are great bike trails - much safer than the narrow roads nearby to ride. We ran into a fund raiser for the Carolina Coonhound Rescue, a group that rescues, fosters and has dogs for adoption. There were a lot of cute dogs with "Adopt Me" signs.

We haven't spent all our time working. The marina has a loaner car so we drove once into Charleston proper and day before yesterday took the dinghy over (it took about the same amount of time both ways). The city is beautiful and historic, good for walking with a free trolley when you get weary. The weather has been stunning - in the high 70s, so shorts and tee shirts!

Yesterday was rainy, so we borrowed the car, made a WestMarine run (you can never go too often), a grocery store visit then went to see the Angel Oak - a huge live oak tree nearby that may be one of the oldest trees east of the Mississippi. On the way back to the marina, we stopped at a roadside restaurant, JB's Smokeshack, which had a full parking lot. We walked in to find a room filled with picnic tables and two areas with food laid out for a buffet. We asked the guy at the front what we needed to do and he replied, "Pay me money then eat." It was delicious - pulled pork, fried chicken, mac and cheese, potato salad, collard greens, cole slaw, chocolate and banana pudding and more things we didn't even have room to try. We are terrible vegetarians.




We have been watching the Olympics every night; we'll have Olympic withdrawal after tomorrow. We are still trying to sell the old dinghy motor and are waiting for two boxes from MN (the unused gas can to sell with the motor and a box of yarn and books). After they arrive, we will untie the dock lines and point our noses South. Sally

Medical update

After a little heart issue in Norfolk, where I ended up in the ER after Sally flew home, David and I brought Adirondack down the coast to Charleston, where he is parked at the St' John's Marina there. This is a delightful spot to stay. leave the boat or spend the winter.

The folks at the Sentara Leigh hospital recommended I go home and see my own cardiologist, though. And....

I'm having a battery of tests done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester on 12/3, most of which I just had done either here or while I was in Norfolk last month, but I will have already been on Medicare for three whole days! I will have a consult with the Mayo cardiologist on Tuesday after he goes over all this, but my cardiologist wants me to hold out for a Dr. Hartzell Schaff, who he thinks is just about the best in the world at this kind of (s). He would do the job on Christmas Eve and I might be there for a week or so. So how about that for some happy holidays!! There's just no place I would rather spend time with friends and family.....

The good news is that I dropped 55# before all this, brought my blood pressure down to a somewhat normal number and have been on a steady walking program, all of which makes me a much better candidate for this procedure.

More to follow, especially if I can get this thing to post photos!

jeff

Crew change, moving again

And still no photos. It still won't let me post them. And I have some dandies.

Peg took off on the train to catch her return flight at Baltimore, while Sally and I puttered around the boat in preparation for her flight from Norfolk back to MSP. We missed her right away. We had all attended a Cruiser's Snowbird Rendezvous there at Hampton which turned out to be quite the gala affair, with lots of seminars, free food and interesting people. Sally got a ride from some Monk owners we met the last time we were here who just happened to be cruising the docks and saw her on the boat. They volunteered to give her a ride under the tunnel to the airport, which was a really big favor. While she was negotiating that, I was trying to figure out a yard that would haul Adirondack and give him a couple coats of new bottom paint.

After she left by car at 0600, I traversed the bottom of Chesapeake Bay to get to Cobb's Marina in Norfolk for that work, which turned out to be only about three miles from the airport. And it was rough, with 3 - 5' waves on the beam and stuff flying all about for an hour. I really missed her during that, although I'm sure she didn't feel the same. After he was hauled out, we didn't find any other problems that needed attention. This is often not the case in the cruising lifestyle, I can tell you. Our boat has been sooo good to us, lately!

So today I'm thinking about waxing about half of the hull and saving the rest for David, who arrives on Tuesday to accompany me south to Charleston where we are parking Adirondack until the end of January or so. And then we don't know where we will go. I'm hoping to fire up "TrawlerTime," a charter business which will focus on the East Coast and the Bahamas. If I get a couple charters to the Bahamas???  We'll see.

Meanwhile I'm puttering on the boat, broken up by lots of walks and biking. For the record, Norfolk is one of the worst places in the US I've ever biked in. Few bike lanes, bad sidewalks, inconsiderate drivers, few curb cuts, leave your bike at home.

Off to Wesr Marine!

Capt. jeff