We're here! (in Florida, that is)

Officially arrived in Florida on Thursday, January 27.  Had a lovely run from Brunswick, GA to Fernandina Beach, FLA.  Rocky from Hilton Head recommended stopping in this first and only American city to have been ruled under 6 different flags.  Coming up to it though, you'd never know there was a picturesque resort town, as it was sandwiched between two huge pulp and paper mills.  Fernandina is at the Northeastern most tip of Florida - look across the Amelia River and you see Georgia.  We enjoyed a three hour walk-around and a wonderful Southern style meal. 

Courthouse on Centre Street

One of the many circa 1800s mansions on 6th Ave North



The following day, we waited out the low tide and headed out a bit later for Saint Augustine, FLA.  The run had a few minor challenges related to low depth and shoaling here and there, but for the most part the day was beautiful and sunny.  We spent a good part of the journey in a gorgeous and fairly straight canal viewing some pretty impressive homes - essentially, we were in their backyard!

Before the Harbour Beach canal we passed this little fellow (Rob and Brad will know what this is for sure!)

Gorgeous canal system in Harbor Beach...



...and their beautiful homes!



Made it to Saint Augustine with a few moments of daylight left.  Sue hooked her first mooring ball on the first crack.  We then turned our attention to our dinghy (which hadn't been used since the summer).  Scott had fixed the winch last week, but we still held out breath to make sure the dinghy made it down safely.  It did fine; we had a little hearing damage though! 

Once settled, we actually got a chance to see a gorgeous vista that night and the following morning.  We've enjoyed our travels so far, but the warmer weather and sun are definately a welcome change.

Beautiful sunset as we approach Saint Augustine Municpal Marina

Another beautiful sunrise in Saint Augustine



A schooner floated by for a visit




Saint Augustine by day

After a few days here, we'll head off to Daytona Beach.





Brunswick Blues

We had intended to stay one night in Brunswick, but the following day was pouring rain, so I decided to get a little maintenance done and did a full oil and filter change on both CATs.  Not hard work, but it takes a while to change out 17l of oil and two very large oil filters on each engine.  With the maintenance done, and the engine room cleaned up a little, I thought we were ready to go the following day, however, mother nature had another idea - WIND and lots of it 60 km/h.  Enough to throw up a one foot wave in a 100 yard wide canal - certainly enough to blow out the water in the rest of the ICW and make low water too thin to pass - so we stayed another night.

The city is a bit of a mixed bag of nice historic waterfront homes and shopping and some less well maintained areas supporting those with lower incomes.  That said, there are some very nice vistas we enjoyed very much.  The live Oaks in the city were incredible - after hundreds of years they have taken over yards and intersections reaching full city blocks with their trunk like limbs.

Lovers Oak

One of Many Churches

A Grand Old Home - Once

We continue South from here and expect to be in FLA on Thursday - although just!

Cheers!!

What we'll do to watch some hockey!

You know you're Canadian when you start blogging about hockey in the middle of a boating sabbatical, right?!  We can say that we've put a lot more effort into trying to watch the Sens play, than those bums deserve right now.  You Leafs fans can give it a rest, okay?!  We know it's a bad year already.

Our journey of discovery began just after New Years in Norfolk, Virginia, right smack in the middle of junior hockey playoffs.  For you football fans, you may also remember this as the Bowls Games time of year too.  The bartenders we coaxed into checking the NHL channels did so with good humour, if not with a touch of skepticism.  We got to see the Penguins but that was about it.

After several attempts, we finally got the Canada/Russia game at Chili's.  The bartender said, "you know Virginia Tech is playing tonight, right?!"  In other words, we could watch the hockey game on one of the side TVs on mute.  Fair concession.  Good venue. Poor outcome.  Enough said there.

With our knees sore from pleading our hockey case to every bartender on the Eastern seaboard, Scott thought it would be a good idea to subscribe to NHL Game Centre Live - live streaming of all the NHL hockey games.  Good idea, in theory.

The only challenge, is that you need a decent WiFi signal to actually stream the feed.  At first, we'd try to balance our laptop in precarious positions on the boat, but as transient boaters, you often get the last spot on the dock, so the wireless signal sucks (quite frankly).

Finally, in Marconi fashion, we sought out in search of a better signal.  And did we find this elusive signal? Indeed we did.  Sometimes, in a Captain's lounge which a nice dockmaster would keep open for us.  Other times, it was the laundry room, the bathroom (NOT Sue), and freezing our Canadian buns off in cold outside of the marina office, where the signal was somehow always the best.

Last night though, we actually caught a decent enough signal to watch the Sens lose again, right in our own boat! Pure luxury!

Maybe it's time to get back to yoga again....
PS - Go Sens Go (already)!

A Tribute to The Carolinas

Having just entered Georgia after nearly 3 weeks of boating in The Carolinas, we felt it was appropriate to pay tribute to this wonderful region.

We were very impressed by the boating in The Carolinas.  The beautiful coastline and picturesque scenery however was no match for the genteel and charming people we encountered along the way.  We were truly amazed by the degree of authenticity and genuine friendliness everywhere we went - restaurants, stores, marinas, and even strangers walking past on the street.  When people discovered we weren’t “from around here”, they openly welcomed us to their town or city.

People were consistently kind and helpful.  And, we loved the “Hi Y’al!” greeting everytime.  Who could resist that charm?  One of The Carolina mottos is “Beautiful Places and Friendly Faces”.  The people certainly live up to that motto, without question.  

Would we come to back to The Carolinas? “Oh Halya!”  Had to get that in there.  If you ever get the chance to visit The Carolinas, it’s well worth it.

Sunset at Ocean Isle, NC

Okay, maybe one more sunset picture - Scott's right, I can't resist you know!

Georgia On My Mind

We had planed to go on the ICW to Savanah GA and spend a day or two.  However, we spent a couple of days there in the not too distant past and the weather was only going to be so so - so - we decided to skip it.  The weather forecast was for sunny and 12 C with a light wind and a short slow waves on the Atlantic so we thought we would make the best of it and take a long run from Hilton Head Island SC to Brunswick GA in a day.

The challenge with running in the Atlantic (other than wind and waves) is that you really only should enter and exit at major ports of call.  In these areas the inlets are well marked, dredged and often have break waters set up to make getting in and out easier.  This was a lesson I learned well at Barnegate!  So in this case it meant running for 153KM of wide open ocean.  This distance is about as far as Reviresco wants to go in a day and is roughly a 10 hour run - no problem for the boat - but the captain and crew get tired after a while.

We checked the sea conditions and all was well so we dropped lines at 7:30AM and headed out.  The run was uneventful and a little boring at times - that is to say perfect!  The seas did build a bit in the afternoon from about 2-3 feet up to about 6 - but the change was gradual and we adapted easily.  At one point I thought I would try to smooth out the ride for Sue a little and did some manual steering.  Autopilot is great but it can't anticipate what the boat will do just adapt a second after it has done.  With me at the wheel I was able to steer into the waves and on a few occasions I was able to get our speed up from 12.5 MPH up to 18 MPH riding down the bigger waves like a 48 foot 25 ton surf board - fun!  Sue did not seem quite as impressed asking "is it supposed to do that?".  Yes it is!

Big Dredger Deploying Rigging in Channel

Welcome to Brunswick!

Brunswick Lighthouse

Sue Loves those Sunset Shots!

Brunswick GA is a small town and one of the first 5 ports in the USA, still a major trading port it supports fishing, pulp and paper, auto export for GM/Ford and tourism.  The town is not very big, about 16,000 people but the ones we have met seem quite friendly.

Next Stop FLA Baby!!!

Hilton Head Island SC

The Marina at Hilton Head is very nice!  It was designed from the start to be an integral part of the natural beauty of this planned community.  The island has retained most of it's mature trees and features golf, tennis, biking, walking and miles and miles of white sandy beaches.  We enjoyed a nice day walking around and seeing the sights.

The Marina by Day

Bronze Figure Reading

We Had a Little Pic-Nic by the Beach

Golf Anyone?  Jim???

Reviresco at Rest

Now All Sue Needs is a Bikini!

Don't Feed or Harass the Alligators!

The Marina by Night

We are off to Brunswick GA next - no not to play pool!

Cheers!

Georgetown to Charleston (Atlantic Run)

Sue put on a brave face on Wednesday and got ready to head out onto the great big sea.  The run on the ICW would have been long and winding and the weather was nice, the sea was calm and we wanted to give Reveresco a bit of a run - so off we went.  On the way out of the harbour we were hailed by the US Coast Guard who were escorting in a ship - man do they run fast despite their size.

Onega Monsoon

After slamming through her wake (the biggest wave we hit all day) we were out into the ocean.  It was a 5 hour run down the coast to Charleston.  We were using our new radar to track the coast as we ran some 5 miles off to stay clear of any possible shoaling.  You would be surprised, but it's not hard to find yourself in shallow water even a couple of miles out.  After a few hours I went below to do a full systems check and returned to the fly to find that some fog had rolled in and we could no longer see more than a couple of hundred yards in any direction.  Once again - you gotta love GPS and Radar!

However despite an hour of fog it was otherwise a very nice day on the water and we arrived in Charleston
without incident.  The view from the harbour is OK, but the city is very nice indeed - if you are looking for history and some very old houses circ. 1750 - 1850 you have come to the right place!  We spent a full day touring around and were quite impressed with the effort the historical society put into ensuring the character of the city remains vibrant.

Harbour Walk Fountain

A Fresh Salad Never Looked So Good!

The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

Lovelu Clock Tower

One Of The Many Churches

City Hall

A Small Back Alley Home

Gated Home on Meeting St.

Waterfront Home Overlooking Harbour

River Walk Fountain

Charleston FDP

Old Garage

We enjoyed our time in Charleston - but it's off to Beaufort SC!  Were getting warmer Doc!!!!

Ocean Isle NC to Georgetown SC

We had a cold drizzly run today - but we made good time and we arrived without incident.  Along the way we went through a couple of bridges and even passed a couple of boats - rare this time of year.


Sunrise at Ocean Isle



Can't Gamble in SC?  Hop on a ship and head to sea!

 

One of the many homes along the ICW







Myrtle Beach Draw Bridge



Sunset at Ocean Isle



On to Charleston SC tomorrow.

Happy Birthday To Sue!

Today is one of those important days in a persons life - a celebration that you are who you are.   Now we all know that Sue is not a big fan of birthday parties, but it is a big day for her family and for myself especially.  Sue is without doubt the best part of my life and a constant source of love and pride.  After 25 years together, Sue is still the person I most want to spend my life with.

Happy Birthday Bear - I Love You!

The Exhaust - She Blows!

The morning was a little foggy and there was a light drizzle in the air, but we were excited to be back underway.  Now the main question was if our repair to the exhaust would work as expected.  I spent some time with Sue to show her the repair and how to check that everything was working as expected.  After we got the big Cats warmed up Sue went below to check everything out every half hour or so for a few hours.

Joint of the New Hose to the Old

Going back to the engine room

Custom Elbow Joint and connection to Water Injection Manifold

New Water Injection Feed Hoses

All the connections settled in and held so it looks like we are good to go!

Since I had a little extra time I also took the time to re-bed the Port Fuel Fill port and add a backing plate to our aft midships docking cleat.  It was a productive few days - if not lots off laughs.

Another obstacle overcome.

On we go!

Where There's Smoke....

We had made a hard run on Wednesday Jan 12th from Morehead to Joyner Marina - 10 hours solid.  During the day we had to make two "high speed" runs to make bridge openings that were only open on the half hour or hour.  That meant taking Reviresco up to 80% load for about an hour or so.  She's a little thirsty at that speed, but given the choice of using the fuel to go a little faster or sitting around waiting - I'm going to put the throttles forward every time!

The day ended uneventfully and we retired early for a quick departure to North Myrtle Beach the following day.  After about four hours of run time sue asked "do you see smoke from the dash?"  - INDEED I DID!  I immediately sent Sue for the fire extinguisher as I did a systems check to see if anything looked out of sorts - seemed fine.  I ducked under the dash of the flybridge where the smoke was coming from to take a look - all good.

Sue took the helm so I could investigate further.  The lower salon was full of light blue smoke - no particular location seemed to be the source so I checked the kitchen, electrical system, engine room, lighting - everything was fine - but there was still smoke!

I went outside and examined the smoke off our exhaust - it was minimal and the wind was taking it away.  So where was it coming from - I was racking my brain!  Then a few thoughts came together, exhaust smoke and heat - I recalled that the second bathroom was warm at the end of the day and the exhaust line ran behind the sink under the counter - when I opened the door - BINGO SMOKE!

We blew an exhaust hose, not a seriously dangerous problem from a fire perspective, but clearly a problem that required immediate attention.  I shut down the Port motor and started idling along for a mile until we came across Ocean Isle Marina a short time later.  We pulled in and took stock of our situation.

The Black Spot is a Quarter size hole

We have been held up here for two days and it will be a couple more until we can get the parts we need to fix the problem.  In the mean time Joe, our new found mechanic and contortionist, and I have been crawling in some rather small spaces working at removing and replacing the blown hose.  We are currently one hose elbow away from success - an elbow Joe is going to have to custom make in fibreglass.

The good news is the other side has already been replaced so when this is done we will be good to go on both sides without further worry.

All in all I think it has gone well - Sue handled the boat while I was trouble shooting and I figured it out in about 3 minutes and had us landed safely in less than half an hour on one motor.  Crisis averted and more valuable lessons learned.

We will let you know when we are back under way.

Cheers!!!

Canadian Eh?

There are many skills we learn as Canadians, a good dry sense of humour, humility and a lot about snow.  Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad for me and that third one came in handy this morning.  We got up at 6:00AM to drop lines at first light around 6:50AM for a full 10 hour day to our next port of call.  I did a quick look at the weather forecast to see what the day held and it was calling for 2CM of snow inland and a little rain and snow by the coast.

I was trying to decide what our best course of action would be - should we stay or should we go?  A quick look outside at that tell-tale grey slate sky told me all I needed to know and we went back to our warm bed!  A couple of hours later we awoke to a nice bright sky and some very fluffy white stuff that had taken NC by surprise!

No Problem for a few good Canucks!

The dock master, Dwayne, stopped by and suggested we take our Canadian boat and weather off his dock thank you very much!  I suggested that I was in NC now and was planning to act like one and stay indoors today thank YOU very much!

So we spent the day reading and I fixed a couple more minor issues on the boat.  Our fish finder and depth sounder packed it in due to some faulty wiring and our master head stopped flushing due to a bad switch - took a little bit of time to trouble shoot the FF but it was a simple fix on both counts.

Sue has her last office meeting tomorrow evening (tele-conference) so we plan to hang out for another day and I will fix up a couple more items and we will continue south on Wednesday Jan 12th.

We are not on any particular time table - so it's all good!

Here's to being resourceful Canadians!