JACKSONVILLE BCH, ST. AUGUSTINE, DAYTONA BCH, TITUSVILLE, COCOA BCH

He Said:  Hello from pretty darn nice Florida.  As I mentioned at the end of our last blog, we were heading to Jacksonville Beach for the marina party on Sat. Dec. 14^th.  Our trip went very well and we had no issues docking at the marina. The dockhand fellow made certain that we were plenty aware of the party that evening.  The party was great with its cold drinks, 70’s band, terrific low country boil food (a combination of all kinds of good seafood) and location - maybe 100 yards from our boat. We enjoyed a fun evening.  We met a few nice boat folks and even did our best to lite up the dance floor (an A for effort). We spent the following day catching up on laundry and a run to the grocery store.  Jacksonville Beach was a pretty cool town but a couple of days worked out perfect and we headed to St. Augustine on Monday the 16^th.

We had about a 3 ½ hour trip to St. Augustine, and it went very well. After staying in the marina a fair amount lately we decided to stay on a mooring ball for the next several days.  Our ball was about an 8 minute dingy ride into the town but was well worth it.  We grabbed pizza in town on Monday and took it back to the boat for dinner.  It was terrific.

On Tuesday we did something that we have never done before.  I really hate the whole concept of these time share type things, but we signed up for one on Tuesday and even went thru with it.  They were selling you on a vacation savings program for flights, car rental, hotels and other savings, but we fought them off - it was not too terribly painful.  We received a few nice things for sitting in the 1 ½ hour pitch including a really cool tour of the city on a trolley-type bus along with some nice dinner coupons.  The pitch started at $8,995.00 and ended up at $1,000.00, but we held our distance.  We thought living on the boat was good ammunition to holding off the high pressure sales dudes.

One of Flagler's first hotels.  St Augustine owes a lot to Ponce de Leon and Mr. Flagler.

The following day was wonderful.  Our good friends from Phoenix now live in the Orlando area and they drove over to join Pat and me for the day.  Jim Hyland joined IP as a salesman and then became my boss prior to his retirement.  Jim and Greta have 2 daughters.  Amy is back in Phoenix and is also in the print world.  Their other daughter just brought them a beautiful grandson with a gr8 little name - of course, it is Jack.  We had a blast with the Hylands spending a few hours on the boat along with a few hours or so walking around St. Augustine.  Later in the PM we grabbed a burger and a cold one then they headed back to Orlando.  Thanks again for coming to visit. We really enjoyed the flavor of St. Augustine and the complete city was about a 2 minute walk from the marina -  we really love that.

St. Augustine lit up for the holidays as seen from the dinghy dock

On Friday we began our 5 hour journey to Daytona Beach. We arrived in the mid afternoon and the trip went very well. The area of DB that we were in was not the DB with tons of college drunks (I am sure most of you remember that).  It was cute and very peaceful - we think the crazy area was a few miles from the marina so our evenings were far from loud and crazy.  On Saturday the 21^st we decided to grab the shitty city bus and go to the ocean side to check out the beach.  After about a 75 minute wait we were told the bus broke down and a van was going to pick us up and then we have to transfer to eventually get to the beach.  We talked to a UPS dude and he told us how simple it was to cross the bridge and get to the beach.  It was about a 30 minute walk and we finally got there at about lunch time. We parked our towels on the beach and grabbed some food from one of those roach coach things - a dog and a burger, hard to mess that up.  The greatest thing about DB is that forever you have been able to drive your ride right down the damn beach, how cool is that??  From our towels to the cars must have been all of 20 feet or so.  It was a sunny and fun day.

Driving down Daytona's fames beach

We departed the following day and headed for Titusville for a 1 nite stay on Sunday nite. It was a short trip.  Titusville didn’t have a lot but we stopped there because we had a chance to meet up with Captain Doug, our buddy from Boston who moved our boat to Boston back in May.  It was terrific hanging with Doug (he was heading back to Boston from the Ft. Lauderdale area).  We met at a cool little tiki bar within a short walk of the marina.  The bad part was Doug only had an hour or 2 to spend with us, but it was fun.  

We left Titusville on Monday with only about a 3 hour day in front of us as we headed to Cocoa Beach. We went into town on Monday and had dinner at a cute little sandwich shop and headed in early.  The marina here in Cocoa is really cool and the location of the boat is perfect - directly in front of us.  This is probably the nicest marina we have seen for some time. The lobby area is beautiful and the staff is very friendly.  They informed us they were having a cook out on Christmas Eve during the day at about 1PM.  Johnny cooked the best jerk chicken I have ever had.  Pat prepared a pasta plate and other people either brought food or tossed a few bucks to Johnny.  We got back to the boat about 5 or so.  It is so cool to never have to worry about driving anywhere after throwing down a few cold ones.  I’m not saying that I don’t miss my fast black ride back in Az.  I haven’t driven for so long not sure if I remember how.

We can tell that we are in the central part of Florida just from the weatherman alone -  usually mid to high 70’s and lows of only about 60 or so. We like this a lot.  No AC.  No heat.  YES!!  We are excited that my nephew, Todd, who came out to Annapolis is coming to visit us in Marathon in about 4 weeks.  He is traveling down to the Keys with my younger brother Terry (one of the twins).  We are very excited to see both of them.

I think that is about a 10 day wrap up of what is happening with us.  Hope all is going well for everyone.  Happy Holidays, Jack

 

She Said:  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

 

It was a short, uneventful trip to Jacksonville Beach.  We planned on staying here mostly for provisioning, fuel, laundry, and just general marina conveniences.  We picked a good time to stay here – the marina was having their annual Christmas party the night we arrived.  It was a fun night with a “low country boil” which we hadn’t yet experienced.  Everything was decorated festively and we had a really nice holiday experience.  We picked up some toys because there were Marines collecting Toys For Tots.  For those of you who like COLD weather for Christmas, we had that covered, too.  Not only was it cold and rainy, but we had a tornado touch down about 30 miles from us.  That was our 2^nd tornado in a month – not something I expected.   

Is it cold enough?  Jack in front of a St Augustine Xmas tree

I put the final touches on the Christmas decorations inside MTB.  She looks really fun and festive.  It’s really been fun traveling during Christmas – we’ve seen and experienced so many different holiday sights. 

We traveled to St. Augustine and stayed on a mooring ball – it was an uneventful arrival.   It was fun to see that our neighbor was the boater who helped us with our mooring line in Fernadina Beach.  It was about ½ mile dinghy ride into town and with the cold temps the ride was not pleasant – especially at night.   

 

I have read so much about security in FL – always lock your boat, remove your ignition keys, chain your dinghy, and so on.  I take it all literally and put Jack on the chore of checking keys and locks.  Knowing we were secure, we hit the town. I was really looking forward to visiting St. Augustine.  I had such high hopes, and I wasn’t disappointed.  It was such a great town – lots of history, architecture, shops and restaurants.  There’s a pedestrian shopping street that ran through the center of town.  We signed up for a sightseeing tour the next day, picked up a pizza and headed back to MTB.  But when we got home, we couldn’t enter the boat.  Somehow when Jack was checking our locks he inadvertently locked us out with the keys inside.  We tried everything we could to get inside.  I finally decided to call a locksmith when suddenly Jack picked the lock.  Another bullet dodged.

Magnolia Lane in St Augustine - voted one of the nation's top 10 pretties streets

One of the best things about our time in St. Augustine was a visit from Jack’s former boss and his wife, Jim and Greta.  They drove from central Florida and spent the day with us.  We had lunch on MTB, walked around town and grabbed a quick bite before they headed back home.  I was such a nice day.  The next day we had our boat neighbors over for Happy Hour before heading into town for our final dinner in town.

Flagler College - formerly the Flagler Ponce de Leon Hotel

It was a long travel day to Daytona Beach.  As we get into more populated areas, there are more bridges.  We need 23 feet clearance, so when bridges are shorter than that we need to wait for the bridge to open.  With all bridges, we need to slow down to idle speed as we approach and transit the bridge.  All of this adds to the overall travel time.  Another issue is manatees.  Where manatees are likely to hangout, we have to reduce our speed to idle speed.  Manatees like warm water so they are more likely to be in shallow water.  As we continue to move south, they will be more common.   

After 4 nights on the ball, it was nice to be in a marina in Daytona Beach.  We took a short walk into town for a corned beef and cabbage dinner at an Irish pub.  The weather continues to improve.  We walked to the beach, had lunch and hung out for a few hours.  There are still sections of the beach where cars can drive.  It was a short, but fun visit to Daytona Beach!

Heading South toward warmer weather - YEAH!

 

We had another long travel day ahead of us, so we were up and at it early the next morning.  Our engines started right up, but the battery warning lights came on and wouldn’t go off.  When that’s happened in the past, Jack would rev the engine and the light would go out.  That didn’t help this time.  We hoped that once we got out into the waterway and underway the alarm would stop.  No such luck, so we headed back to the marina.  I don’t know what happened, but after about 20 minutes at the marina the problem fixed itself.  We were back on the water, one hour behind schedule.  We were in really wide bodies of water, but we had to stay in a very narrow dredged channel.  We ran into some really shallow water and that’s always nerve racking.  There were lots of dolphins and they always make the trip fun.  There were supposed to be lots of manatees too, but they’re hard to see.  They don’t come out of the water like a dolphin does – we can just see the top of their heads.  We finally got to Titusville and grabbed a mooring ball.  Captain Doug was in Florida on business and met us at Cracker Jack’s.  There was a great band playing and we had a short, but nice visit with Doug.  

 

It was a gorgeous day, and we had a short trip to Cocoa Beach, FL.  Temps were a record setting 84 – yeah!  We arrived at our marina and Jack had a challenging approach to our slip, but he did a great job.  We settled in for a nice week long stay.  There was a Christmas care package waiting for us from my mom and dad.  Now we were looking forward to the holidays.  The marina hosted a potluck on Christmas Eve (excellent jerk chicken).  Christmas day was low-key.  Eric, a neighbor boater, came over for happy hour and we walked into town.  The only place that was open was a small, smokey dive.  We didn’t stay long and headed back to MTB for Christmas dinner.  It was a quiet and pleasant Christmas.         

BEAUFORT SC, JEKYLL ISLAND GA, FERNADINA BEACH FL

He Said:   Good-bye Charleston.  We really enjoyed our near 1 month stay in Charleston SC.  We enjoyed the marina and really enjoyed the cool city with all of its southern flavor.  So it was time to head further south on Wednesday the 4^th and also it was time for our good friend Tim to head back home to Seattle.  The 3 of us had a blast hanging out on the boat doing little projects and finding fun little places with Tim to enjoy some southern cooking.  Between Tim and Pat they do a great job of finding fun little neighborhood places to grab a bite to eat. What is terrific in Charleston is the fact they have no chain type restaurants so everywhere we go would be owned by the fellow living down the street - really cool.  

 

Our plans were to anchor the following week after being on a dock for nearly a month.  I mentioned earlier that we truly enjoy both and we have many chances to do both as we travel.  We also enjoy going onto a mooring ball but they are not so popular down south for whatever reason.  We enjoyed an anchorage on Wednesday following about a 5 hour trip.  Thursday we headed to Beaufort to also anchor; we traveled about 4 hours on Thursday also.  On Friday we decided to move our anchorage a few 100 yards, because we felt a little uncomfortable where we were at.  It was pretty easy to simply move.

 

Sunset from MTB - Beaufort, SC

 

We went into Beaufort on the dingy Friday nite for their annual lighting of the tree and the x-mas street party.  It looked like the whole town must have been there.  They closed the street so bodies were walking everywhere enjoying the evening.  Toward the end of the nite we listened to the Marine Corp. orchestra singing really cool holiday music and then headed back to the boat.  Our dingy ride from the dock to our boat was very short but still very dark.  Now days we keep a light or 2 on MTB so we have no problem finding the boat later in the evening.

 

 

The Marine Corp Band - Beaufort, SC

 

So here comes Saturday and of course I find the bar in town most likely to have college football on.  We arrived early enough for the 8PM kick off between OSU and Michigan State.  The bar was packed and we worked our way into a couple of seats at the bar to anticipate a good close game.  We got exactly that, but the wrong team won.  After our performance vs. Michigan I was plenty nervous about the MSU game.  I needed to be nervous.  So no BCS Natl Championship Game - we are heading to the Orange Bowl to play Clemson.  It should be a good game.  I am still kicking around going to the game since we will be around 100 miles north of Miami in early Jan.  We will see what happens.  If you ever decide to bet on college football, please check with me first.  I do not bet at all other than a 6 pack here or there.  Saturday I pulled for OSU, Oklahoma State, Duke, ASU, and Maryland.  Nice job - all 5 got whipped.  You could probably get rich quick by simply laying your $$ down on the other team than I pull for.  Oh well!



Boat Parade

Boat Parade

The following day we departed Beaufort and headed S. towards Savannah, Ga. After spending nearly a month in Charleston we decided to not go into Savannah.  We spent some time there on our trip last year and due to the marina not being close to the city we passed on it.  We spent both Sunday and Monday kicking back on an anchor, eating in, and pretty much relaxing.  Sometimes this is important for us to do.

 

Sunset at anchor

 

 

 

We headed S. on Tuesday to anchor again but the winds made us change our mind.  We pulled into the marina at Jekyll Island and played it safe.  Our plan was to stay just 1 nite, which we did, then headed towards Fernadina Beach, Florida.  We traveled about 4 ½ hours like we do very often, maybe 40 to 45 miles.  We like those travel days.  We arrived into the fine state of Florida on Wednesday in mid afternoon just as planned.  What we did not plan was heavy winds along with very fast currents.  Another challenge, but not the end of the world.  We had our hands full but finally hooked up to the mooring ball.  We spent that nite on the boat and decided due to the very choppy water and fast current to not roll the dice and head into the dingy dock.  We cooked on the grill, caught some TV and headed to bed early.  When we are on the ball our boat swings a ton especially if it is windy.  The good news is you are going nowhere.

 

This cool little town is really neat, just like a bunch of cities we have already visited.  We have to keep telling ourselves that we are in the winter and in the northern part of Florida so it isn’t exactly a heat wave, but 70’ish.  Hard to complain when about 90% of the country seems to be freezing their asses off.  We’re pretty darn lucky.

 

Both Thursday and Friday nites we traveled with the dingy into the marina and hit the town. We found the oldest bar in Florida and a great Mexican restaurant on Friday.  We also found a great little place to have a terrific seafood dinner on Saturday nite.  We also found some pretty good music and of course $2.00 PBRs.  Enough said!!

 

Jack at The Palace Tavern (Florida's Oldest Bar), Fernadina Beach, FL

Our plans are to head out on Saturday and arrive in Jacksonville Beach for a few nites.  The marina in JVille has a party for all of the boat folks on Saturday and we plan on being there.  We will keep you posted.  Tired of typing. 

 

Merry Christmas - MTB lit for the holidays.

 

Take care.  Later, Jack

 

 

She Said:  It’s been a busy week or so.  We finally left Charleston and traveled about 45 miles and dropped anchor in the Edisto River.  I watched a YouTube on setting an anchor and we tried a couple of different things.  They worked perfectly.  I’m not saying we’re now expert anchorers, but we are greatly improved and sleeping better at night. 

 

Our plan was to anchor in Beaufort, SC.  When we arrived at the anchorage area, we didn’t really like it.  We always have a backup plan, so we were off to our 2^nd choice anchorage.  The proximity to town was better at our 2^nd choice, but the hold and wind protection weren’t as good.  It was also a busier anchorage so that meant we had to find a place to set our anchor among many boats.  (Not my favorite thing.)  We found a place, set the anchor, checked and double checked it, and everything looked good.  That is until the winds and current shifted direction around 11pm.  Because I’m a little narcotic, I put out a lot of “rode” (line/chain) for a good strong hold.  I apparently put out about twice what the other boats near us did, so when we all turned around on the anchor we got too close to the boats that were behind us.  Nothing happened, but it was a bit unnerving to see those boats so close to us.   We could have pulled in some of the rode, but I wanted to be sure that we had a strong hold.  The next afternoon we would reset the anchor.

 

Sunset - Beaufort, SC

 

Resetting the anchor the next day was easier said than done.  It took us about an hour.  Everything was going just fine until I started pulling up the last 20 feet.  The anchor just wouldn’t come up.  I was sure that a log or something settled on top of the anchor.  Jack kept driving MTB forward, backward and sideways trying to dislodge the anchor.  When it finally dislodged and broke the waterline, we saw that a chain was draped over the anchor.  We think one end of the chain was attached to the bottom of the Waterway.  If we weren’t able to dislodge the anchor we would have had to cut the chain and lose the anchor.  We dropped and reset the anchor and everything was good.  Whew – I think we dodged a bullet.

 

The town of Beaufort was great and well worth all the challenges.  Think Pat Conroy, The Big Chill, Forrest Gump, The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides.  They were all set and/or filmed here.  We were in town 3 nights and hit a different restaurant each night.  We were in town for their annual Christmas street party one night and their annual boat parade another night.  What a great time to be there.  It was a fun place to finish my Christmas shopping.  Because we were anchored and had to dinghy into town, that meant I had to watch the Big 10 Championship game with Jack.  Even though Jack’s team lost, he wasn’t too grumpy.

 

Tree Lighting - Beaufort, SC

 

Boat Parade

Boat Parade

It was finally time to leave SC and we weren’t looking forward to the trip through GA.  We had heard so many horror stories about shallow water and general nothingness that I considered going “outside” (traveling in the ocean and not the ICW).  But, we agreed that we like the “inside” (ICW) challenges better than the “outside” challenges so decide to stay with the ICW.  The trip “inside” is about 50% longer than going outside because the ICW twists and turns so much.  There is little residential/commercial development along the GA ICW and few marinas so that meant we would be anchoring out for 3 straight nights. 

 

 The shorter bridge was scheduled to be demolished the day after we came through

 

Our first travel day was a piece of cake and we didn’t understand what all the grumbling was about.  We passed the Bonaventure Cemetery popularized in the book/movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  We set anchor just over the SC/GA state line and had a nice quiet evening onboard.  We woke the next morning to fog.  Because of the tide heights we didn’t want to leave early so there was plenty of time for the fog to burn off.  When we could see a good distance we took off only to find that the fog was patchy; we’d be in the fog, then out of the fog, then back in it.  We were using our radar and followed a sailboat for awhile that sounded her horn every two minutes (a USCG rule when traveling in fog).  After a while we realized that the fog intensified when we crossed a sound. After a couple hours it was completely gone.  Our challenge was then water depth.  It’s not just that it was shallow in a lot of places, it’s that the actual depths in some areas weren’t what was reported on the charts and GPS.  But we made it another day and dropped anchor for a peaceful night on board.

 

Our final day in GA started again with fog.  Not as bad as the day before but still a pain.  We also had a lot of wind along with the discrepancies in water depths.  Other than marsh grass and a variety of birds, there was nothing to see along the way.  It wasn’t picturesque, but it wasn’t ugly – just a lot of the same scenery.  We pulled into our anchorage at about mid-tide and the entrance (where some shoaling was reported) was about 5 feet.  That meant it would have been less than 3 feet in the morning when we would be leaving, and we need over 3 feet.  So we had to go to plan “B” which was an anchorage another 10 miles (over an hour) away.  That was putting us in around 430pm – later than we like, especially when setting an anchor.  There was a marina within ½ mile of the anchorage so that was another option.  We like to travel around 1100RPMS for fuel economy, but when we have a potentially challenging situation we know we can kick it up, spend $$$ for fuel, and get where we need to be faster.  That’s what we did.  The wind was also kicking up and the more we thought about it the better the idea of the marina sounded.  So around 4pm we pulled into the marina on Jekyll Island, and it turned out to be a great idea.

 

Jekyll Island and neighboring St. Simons Island are the only real stops along GA’s ICW.  Jekyll Island was owned by a group of wealthy New York businessmen (Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, etc.).  They initially built a hunting lodge (1880s) and later private “cottages” without kitchens promoting dining interaction at The Club.  By WWII the membership of Jekyll Island controlled 1/6^th of the world’s wealth.  The US government feared the island was a tempting target so the USCG evacuated the island in 1942.  The next morning we rode our bikes around the island and had breakfast at The Club before setting off for Florida.  It was very interesting, and I’m so glad we ended up stopping there.

 

The original hunting lodge on Jekyll Island GA

 

Have you ever seen greener grass?  Jekyll Island, GA

 

The courtyard at The Club in Jekyll Island where we had breakfast

 

As great as the morning started out, it turned out to be not one of my better days.  The marina assured us that the shallow water was behind us and it would be smooth sailing.  WRONG!  We ran into some unmarked shallow water as we entered the St. Andrews Sound shortly after leaving the marina.  We stayed safe, but got completely turned around.  I checked out the charts and GPS and sent Jack in the wrong direction.  We went about a mile out of our way before I figured out we were going the wrong way.  We turned around and got back on track.  The St. Andrew Sound was about 5 miles wide and it was brutal.  There were gale force winds ocean side and the current was running against the wind.  It was reminiscent of our arrival in Ptown 5 months earlier.  A fellow boater we’ve run into a few times crossed at the same time we did, and he said it was the worst water he’d ever been in. 

 

It was a short trip to Fernadina Beach on Amelia Island in Florida.  We were so excited to finally arrive in FL, but FL wasn’t too excited to see us.  The wind was blowing like crazy.  We weren’t looking forward to grabbing our mooring ball.  But Jack pulled us right up to the ball and I hooked it on the first try.  The only problem was that hook and I couldn’t budge the mooring ball line.  Then I couldn’t get the hook to release the line and had to eventually let go of the hook.  Hook over board!  By the time we circled back around to the hook, it was gone – it either sunk or blew so far away we couldn’t see it.  Fortunately we had another shorter hook so we made an attempt with the short hook.  Jack got us to the ball, I hooked the ball, but again the hook was stuck on the line and I lost the hook again.  Boaters on another boat saw our dilemma, said they had the same problem when they arrived, and took their dinghy over to assist.  Not only did they help us get hooked to the ball, they saved our hook.  We owed them a cocktail!  It was so choppy that night that we decided to stay on MTB rather than tempt the fates one more time that day.

 

Sunset Fernadina Beach on Amelia Island, FL
 

 Fernadina Beach is supposed to be the birthplace of shrimping.  It is a cute town and we enjoyed walking around town the next two days.  We went to the oldest tavern in Florida (The Palace, built in 1903), had a great fish dinner at The Crab Trap, listened to live music at the Green Turtle, Mexican at Pablo’s and lunch at Caribou’s.  And of course, we had to buy some shrimp for dinner one night onboard MTB.  When the wind wasn’t blowing the temps were nice.  We really enjoyed Fernadina Beach, but we’re really looking for warmer weather.

 

 

GOOD-BYE CHARLESTON, SC

The SC state tree - the Palmetto Palm

He Said:  Hello Readers: Since our last blog a lot of changes have occurred.  We thought we would depart on that Sunday from Charleston but the windy/cold weather conditions had us changing our plans, what a surprise.  Our total stay in Charleston should be about 3 ½ weeks if we depart when we are planning to.  Thank heaven we really enjoy it here, but the weather has not been our best friend.  Since we pushed back our departure for several days we ended up spending Thanksgiving on the boat in Charleston.  We walked around town for a little and most of the restaurants close to the marina were closed, so our decision to eat on the boat was a good one.  Pat prepared a turkey breast with all the fixings and we just laid low.  The temp got to 50, and if the high would have only been 48 it would have been the coldest Thanksgiving ever.  Thank heaven we had 2 full degrees in our favor.

 

The following day we took the city bus to Loews to buy a few things we needed around the boat.  Our good friend Tim arrived on Saturday following a 6 hour drive - he had been visiting his family over the holiday.  Tim is a water-dude and we always enjoy his company.  He helped us back in Boston when we first bought the boat.  He enjoys doing boat things so we had a list of stuff to do while he was here, and we both enjoyed it.  It was really nice because Tim had wheels and we took advantage of that - it makes doing stuff so much easier.  We were hoping to get to Hilton Head and meet up with Tim there, but sometimes in our world things change - like most of the time.  Tim and his wife Pam are planning on escaping from Seattle this winter and paying us a visit somewhere in southern Florida, should be fun.

 

I think since our last blog my Buckeyes have played twice - once against Indiana and then Michigan.  The first game was a piece of cake, but the game in Ann Arbor was more than a challenge, but we survived.  We have now won 24 in a row and with a win against Michigan State we have a pretty good chance of playing in the national championship game.  If so, it would be 4 times in 11 years, not too bad.

 

I mentioned in an earlier blog that our lives are pretty normal when we are in a marina for an extended time and we believe that it is. Having said that, we realize how very lucky we are to do a trip of a lifetime.  We really have our challenges, but it has been a terrific adventure and we are very much looking forward to arriving in Florida for the following 4 months.  More than likely our next blog will be from either Georgia or the sunshine state of Florida.  Nothing for certain, but that is kind of our game plan. We will see what happens, but thank heaven we are very flexible - if not we would have went crazy be now.  That is about it for now.  Hope all is going well in your world.

 

Thanks to you people who respond to our blog.  We really love hearing back from our friends, so please keep up the good work.  Special thanks to blog responders Russ & Jen and Harlan for showing such interest in our adventure.  We try to blog-respond to all blog posts.

 

Take Care, Jack

 

 

View of The Battery in Charleston from the Ashley River

 

 

Charleston Skyline from the Charleston Harbor

She Said:  As much as we enjoyed Charleston it was time to say good-bye.  We needed two good back-to-back weather days and it looked like that would happen.  So we made a final run to the grocery store, did our last load of laundry, tied up the dinghy and filled up with water.  We were up bright and early in the morning, and it looked awful outside.  We tend to be extremely conservative (maybe wimpy is a better word) when it comes to traveling the waterways, and we debated whether or not we should leave.  Jack went to the marina office and there were 3 other boaters debating the same issue.  Ultimately, we all decided to stay another few days in Charleston instead of facing potentially nasty weather.  It turned out to be a good decision on many fronts.  We found some new places in Charleston and the weather was really lousy.  There were tornados forecasted (one actually touched down – but not near us), the wind was whipping and we were rocking.  We talked once again about getting off MTB and spending the night in a hotel.  But fortunately, the winds shifted from northeast to southwest, and we were very well protected and didn’t rock nearly as much as we expected.  Along with the wind we had unseasonably cold weather – it was the 2^nd coldest Thanksgiving ever in Charleston.  All along the east coast the weather was lousy so there’s no way we would have missed it.  The storm front that came through is the same one that hit most of the U.S., so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining about the weather.

 

We planned on participating in a potluck Thanksgiving dinner in Beaufort, but with our weather delays that wasn’t going to happen.  We debated where to go/what to do for the big day and decided to stay on MTB and cook in – that way we’d have leftovers.  Even though I have 3 burners and an oven, I can only use two of them at the same time.  When I turn the 3^rd “thing” on I blow a fuse.  So needless to say we didn’t have a grand feast, but it was nice. 

 

We met some very nice people during our last week in Charleston.  We had a fun happy hour with some boaters.  They had a lot of great info on the Keys.  At the restaurant Pearlz, we met a great couple from NC (Tom and Cindy) who were spending Thanksgiving weekend in Charleston.  We seemed to keep bumping into them and really enjoyed their company.  I’m not sure who was a bigger talker – Jack or Tom.  They spend several weekends a year in Charleston and had lots of recommendations for us which were all excellent.  Speaking of Pearlz – it’s a great restaurant and oyster bar.  Jack liked the raw oysters he had in the Chesapeake so he decided to try them again – and he stills likes them.  I could take them or leave them.  It’s one of our favorite spots in Charleston. 

 

It seems like things on boats break more often than they do in a house.  During the awful cold spell one of our two heaters went out, so we went Black Friday shopping at Lowes for a portable heater to hold us until we could get the heater fixed.  We did get a mechanic out, but he didn’t have the needed part.  The space heater works really well so we’ll probably wait until somewhere in Florida to get the heater fixed.  Then the TV on the back patio just quit.  It’s happened in the past, but this time we couldn’t reset it.  We no sooner bought a new TV and the old one started working again.  Oh well, that’s the way it goes sometimes.  Now we have a back-up.

 

The highlight of the last two weeks has been Tim’s visit. Tim is our friend from Seattle who joined us in Boston and helped us settle into MTB.  I love when Tim visits.  He and Jack go out, and I get a little time to myself.  Tim’s also very handy and he did a lot of projects on the boat – including replacing our shower head which has greatly improved the showering experience on MTB.  Tim’s also a foodie of sorts – but not in a snobbish way.  Whenever we’re together we try something new.  We went to a southern restaurant, Hominy, and had a great dinner.  Believe it or not, the fried baloney sandwich was the standout.  Excellent.  Tim’s a great friend, and I thoroughly enjoy his visits.  We’re hoping that he and his wife, Pam, will join us in Florida later this winter.

 

It looks like we are officially in the Christmas season, and it’s been fun to see the holiday decorations – especially the lights on MTB.  Yes, we did decorate her – not a lot, but just enough to be festive. Our first Christmas event of the season was the annual Christmas parade and tree lighting in Charleston.  I really enjoy looking at holiday lights on the southern architecture.  As we travel the next month I’m sure we’ll see lots of holiday events – should be fun!

 

33rd annual Charleston Christmas Parade on King Street