Palm Beach Yacht Center

We arrived here on Monday from Stuart. Our intention was to get a couple of problems in the engine room fixed. We stayed here for several weeks in 2007 and we really have a lot of faith in the guys here. In the meantime, we have discovered a couple of new problems to deal with. If we are real lucky we can leave tomorrow afternoon but it may not be until Saturday. It's a boat!!

We don't have much else in the way of news. The trip from Stuart down the ICW goes through some very exclusive neighborhoods. We took a few pictures of the mansions. Some of the boats in front of the mansions are probably several million dollars. We wonder where all the wealth comes from.

Stuart, Florida with Lynnie's bud Patty!

Yippee, we got to visit with Lynnie's Jr. High school friend, Patty, and her husband, Jimmy. We had such a great visit. We haven't seen both of them for many years and it was fun. On the way, we passed a sailing school which was setting up a race course. It looked like fun.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and Patty met us at the dock. Jimmy and Patty, we learned, know everyone in Stuart, Fl. In fact, they know the owner of Finz restaurant which is located just off the ICW, in a pocket of water just off the St. Lucie river called the Manatee Pocket. We were a bit concerned about it because it has relatively low water but we got in just fine. On the way in we passed this Coney Island Hot Dog stand which seemed to be very popular. What a cool idea!!

Patty and Jimmy's friend, Frank, the owner of Finz Bar and Restaurant, suggested that we dock at his restaurant....GRATIS, as long as we came in for dinner or a couple of drinks. Of course, we were more than happy to take him up on his offer! We would highly recommend Finz as the food was excellent and the staff very friendly and helpful. Jimmy and Patty live about five minutes from here.

Patty and Jimmy were perfect hosts. They lent us their car so that we could provision. We found the local WalMart, Lowe's Hardware and a store where Lynnie could buy a few articles of clothing that she forgot to pack. What a treat it was to have a car.

Jimmy and Patty took us to their house on the golf course. It is a lovely Florida house. Then we went out to dinner on Saturday night. We met many of their friends, all of them delightful, especially Debbie and Bobby. We know why they love it here. They brought us back to Finz and the boat and from the boat we got to enjoy the band that Finz had playing that night. We did a little dancing on the deck, it was really nice. On Sunday they took us on a tour of Stuart and then we went into the downtown area where there was a free outdoor jazz concert. Jimmy and Patty are both football nuts so we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the games and yakking.

Tomorrow we leave for the Palm Beach Yacht Center, about 44 miles south. It always tickles me (Lynnie) to think that if we were driving we could be there in an hour. It will take us about 5 1/2 hours! We discovered that our refrigerator isn't working with raw water, but only with the compressor fan. Rick ordered a new pump which will be delivered on Tuesday and that, as well as some other problems will be worked on. We like this marina as we've been here before to have work done and they do quality work. Additionally, the staff, including yard manager Paul Gorney, have all become friends and we trust them implicitely.

After that, we aren't sure where we'll be. We need to spend some time working it out, but for right now a day at a time is working for us. From here we're thinking of heading outside down to Coconut Grove and Key Biscayne. Love to all of you!!

Happy New Year!!

We hope that everyone had a fun and safe holiday! We spent New Year’s Eve and day at a marina in Melbourne, Fl. We’ve been here a couple of times before and really like the town. There is a little Tiki bar at the end of the dock that serves good food so we went there for New Year’s Eve. Today we took our folding bikes into town. It is nice to have them aboard as they give us a chance to see some of the places that we stop at.

Since our last blog entry we have been making our way slowly south. After leaving Fernandina Beach the day after Christmas, we have stopped in two anchorages and a marina in St. Augustine. We always enjoy St. Augustine. We docked across from the old town. The dock master ferried us across the river for dinner, which was terrific and we took a cab back to the boat.

On our way south, we have gone under many bridges. Under most of them we just see concrete pilings, but in Daytona, they have boaters in mind, with these amazing mosaic images of sea life. It is very cool.

We caught up with our buddy boat friends, Norm and Vicki in the Titusville anchorage, which is just outside of Cape Canaveral, on December 29th. They came over in their dingy all decked out in party hats and they brought champagne! We had bought the 'world's best hot dogs' in St. Augustine. Each one weighed 1/4 lbs!! So, we had an early New Year’s Eve party where everyone got happy feet. It was great to see them again. They have gone on ahead of us again and we will hopefully start traveling together soon.

We’ve had some great weather since we’ve been in Florida. When we did this trip 2 years ago we were still wearing long johns, sweats and foot warmers in our sneakers well south of where we are now, so this is a welcome change.

Here are just a few pictures that we thought you'd enjoy. As we cruised through New Smyrna Beach, which looks like a lovely place, we saw a very small island full of pelicans. The kayakers were enjoying seeing them.

The next two pictures show why we are so concerned about tides and what they can do to boats if you don't pay attention!! The first boat is completely out of the water and on the mud. I'm sure they will both get off the bottom when the tides come in.

Merry Christmas from Florida!

We left St. Simons Island, GA yesterday morning. Our first task was to take on fuel. We were told of a place about an hour away that sold diesel fuel for $1.75. Most places are selling it for $2.50 so we were real happy to take advantage of the great price. We had not put any fuel in the boat since May of 2007 so it was time.

We anchored in another beautiful, quiet anchorage on the Brickhill River in south Georgia, just behind Cumberland Island with it’s wild horses and armodillos. As we turned into the river we saw another DeFever (the make of our boat). We had met the owners at the last DeFever rendezvous in 2007. We couldn’t get them on the radio because they had taken their dingy ashore to be with friends but we did catch up with them later by phone. It is fun to run into folks we know on their boats.

This morning we left the anchorage and crossed the GA/FL line. We wanted to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day in a marina, just more festive.


We are in Fernandina Beach, a historic town on Amelia Island, which is an interesting place whose claim to fame is their history. It is the only town in the US that has been under the rule of 8 different countries. We ate lunch at what was the first Customs House in the US. They also claim that the first saloon in the US was established here.


Tonight we are going out for dinner as tomorrow everything will be closed. Rick wants the ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner of hamburgers on the grill! The temps are warm, in the mid-70’s so we will enjoy them out on the aft deck.

Our next stop has not been determined yet. We’ll spend some time tomorrow coming up with a plan.

Well, after celebrating Christmas and just relaxing!!!

As we are writing this, we are listening to Christmas music on our iPod and admiring the beautiful tree that Jayne made for us with shells from NC beaches, thank you Jayne. To all our family and friends, we will miss seeing you this time but we both wish everyone a peaceful and happy holiday. And, of course, the big one…good health!!

We started this entry on Christmas Eve and are completing it on Christmas Day. We spent the day walking around the deserted town, doing laundry and relaxing, just as we had hoped. Here are a few shots from around town.

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Still Florida bound!

Just a quick update from Rickshaw. We stayed in a beautiful, quiet anchorage on our way to St. Simons, GA. We were all by ourselves and enjoyed the sound of pines and palmettos whispering in the wind. On top of that we had a beautiful sunset. We hope you aren’t too tired of our sunset pictures!!!

We left mid-morning the next day to take advantage of the rising tides. We aren’t used to leaving so late but there were at least four areas that were 4-5 feet at low tide which would cause us anxiety. So, we took it slow and didn’t run into any problems. That was, of course, until the storm hit. I think the temperature fell about 30 degrees in just minutes. We were going through a large sound which meant it was very open and that the water and wind were both much higher. It got very, very dark and it was difficult to see because of the strength of the rain. Luckily, it only lasted about 15 minutes which sounds like a short amount of time but when you are in it, it seemed like a very long time. But, if we didn’t have that kind of fun, what kind of stories would we have to tell??

We got into the marina at St. Simon’s island around 4:30 and got ready to have dinner with Rick’s grade school buddy and his wife, Gayle and Dee. They picked us up and took us to a great Italian restaurant. Then they brought us to their beautiful new home where we snitched some Christmas goodies and took a few pictures. Gayle also bought us a new coffee maker as ours died the day before yesterday. Thank you Gayle!!

Tomorrow we leave for an anchorage and then on to Fernandina Beach, which is just south of the GA/FL boarder. We will be in Florida, yea! It is supposed to be close to 80 degrees on Christmas. That is pretty nice to think about.

Leaving Beaufort, SC (finally!)

We had a wonderful day today and exciting, too! We left Beaufort, SC where we had been at a marina for a week. We’ve never stayed at a marina for that long, but we needed some time to get the boat and ourselves ‘together’. We got a lot of chores done and felt very good about leaving. These guys are called Ruddy Turnstones because they turn up stones with their beaks to find bugs, I guess. They are all on one leg to keep warm we figure. Anyway, they were our dock buddies in Beaufort. The boats below were in the Beaufort marina and showed their holiday lights!

The weather was beautiful as we left the dock at 9:00. It has been balmy and, for the past few days, the temperatures have been in the low 70’s. One certainly can’t complain about that! In SC and GA you have to carefully plan your route using the tide tables. There are numerous cuts that we have to go through. A cut is a man-made connection between 2 bodies of water. Unfortunately, both SC and GA have not been given the federal money they need in order to keep the cuts dredged. The draft of our boat is about 5 feet and some of these cuts don’t even have that amount of depth at low tide. So, we need to time our voyage to take advantage of the high tides in this area to get through without going aground, not a good thing.

The Captain and me with our morning coffee.

We had been doing fine and were slowly following a sailboat through one of the cuts. All of a sudden, one of the engines died. I guess we are getting used to the ‘things break on a boat’ attitude because neither of us spazed out! I took over the helm and Rick went below to see what the problem might be. He determined that the fuel filter was clogged and changed it and the engine was up and running in no time. Thank goodness for his diesel school training. (Ed. Rick: I had been watching the vacuum guages on the engines for some time, but they weren't indicating a problem until, of course, the port engine coughed and stopped. One learns something every day aboard a boat ...!)

Later we were going through another cut which would take us into the Savannah River which is a big shipping channel. We had noticed a Coast Guard helicopter going overhead for about 20 minutes but didn’t think anything of it. As we were getting to the head of the cut I happened to look up and saw a huge ship over the line of trees. It was making its way up the river. We knew we had to give way to the "big fella." As we turned the bend a small Coast Guard boat, with a machine gun mounted on it’s bow, came toward us very fast and hailed us on the radio. Nothing to make your heart pump fast when that happens! They told us to throttle back and stay where we were until the ship passed. No problem!! We were a bit surprised that the Coast Guard was helping to bring in the ship via sea and air but we guess that is Homeland Security at work.

We are now in an anchorage. It is a beautiful afternoon and we are the only boat here. The next two days will be a bit dicey as the tides aren’t really favorable for passage at the times we want to go so we may have to wait some of it out. Oh well, it is cruising and there is no need to hurry. Below, a dramatic sky as we cruised today.

Hanging out in Beaufort, SC

We have been remiss in updating our blog. Part of it is just getting used to the boating routine again. There are so many things to do that we haven’t left enough down time to blog. We have also been working on our boating plans. We are currently in Beaufort, SC. Here they pronounced it BEW-fort vs. the way we are used to calling our port city of the same spelling in NC, which is pronounced BOW-fort, the correct way, I might add!! These South Carolinians just do their own thing.

We have had so much fun traveling with our buddy boat. We love traveling with Vicki and Norm but for the short term, their travel plans have put them on a different pace than we need to be. So, we have decided to part company for a few weeks. Since we don’t have any particular commitments, we will take our time and head south at a more leisurely pace.


Since our last blog we have continued to travel down the Intercoastal Waterway from NC to SC. We have anchored out each night. It has been great. We passed this Coast Guard Bouy Tender Boat on our way. It may be hard to see, but they have 3 or 5 bouys that they are on their way to deliver onto the ICW.







This was a small anchorage in a creek off the ICW in SC. It was quiet and beautiful but very cold. Staying warm in a anchorage is a bit tricky. We don't want to run our generators all night so we run them enough to heat up the boat then turn them off and duck under 5 or so blankets on the bed.

We spent two nights anchored just south of Charleston, SC waiting out the weather. We were in a fairly protected anchorage but the winds were strong and we had gusts of 40 mph. The first night out our anchor dragged and we were awfully close to the docks on the side of the creek. We didn’t get much sleep that night as we kept getting up to check our proximity to the dock (well, one of us did anyway!). The storm provided a beautiful rainbow, actually a double rainbow, the next day. You can't see the entire rainbow in the picture but it was a treat to see.

You know you are in South Carolina when begin to see palm trees and all the Spanish moss hanging from the trees. Beaufort is such a lovely little town. Lots of history and beauty. The four of us took a long walk in the historic district. There are lots of small restaurants and shops.

The town has put a beautiful park near the marina. Norm, Vicki, Rick and I took advantage of the swings looking over the water. What a cool place. We'll probably be here a couple more days just hanging out and doing chores.

COLD DAYS ON THE WATER

(But we realize that we might not get much sympathy from many of you today given the US weather report)

We are currently south of Myrtle Beach, SC. We spent two nights at anchor at Wrightsville, NC. We don’t run our generator at night, which is what provides heat, so we run it until things are warmed up and then turn it off before we go to bed. We have 4 blankets on the bed and that works great until you turn your head on the pillow in the middle of the night and you hit the cold side! Wakes you up pretty quickly.

Last night we stayed at a marina in southern NC because Rick’s son Matt was coming home from being in Atlanta for 3 months. We wanted to see him before we headed south. Matt picked us up and we had a great seafood dinner in Calabash, NC, just down the road from the marina. Calabash is famous starting the NC fried food business. So, we had a great visit and lots of fried food.


Here are a few pictures of our trip down the Intercoastal Waterway.


We anchored in a beautiful spot off of the Waccamaw river. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's. Hard to believe after the last two days.

I don't know about you...but this sure looks like a outhouse!

Little River, NC

Capt. Rick with his warm cruising clothes!

THE TIERNEY'S HAVE LEFT THE DOCK!!

We left our dock in Morehead City, NC yesterday morning, 12/4/08. Our plan is to head south to Florida for a few months, joining our boating rendezvous near Ft. Meyers at the end of February and then heading to the Bahamas sometime in mid-March. Our original plan was to leave in late January but our friends, Vicki and Norm who have a boat similar to ours, were heading south and asked us to buddy boat with them. Since we have been spending lots of time in doctor offices, we decided 'why not?'. So, we got things in order and our friends Jim and Nell will be watching the house for us and Nora will be forwarding our mail to us (THANKS AGAIN, GUYS).

We are really looking forward to having company on the trip. Buddy boating is a great way to travel since there is safety in numbers, we can help each other when (not if, it is a boat after all) we have any problems, and they are just great people to be with.

We had a beautiful first day of traveling, but cool...long johns, multiple sweatshirts and stocking caps. We anchored at a small place called Mile Hammock inside the Camp Lejeune marine base. Along the way we were treated to a show by two Osprey aircraft ... the next generation of craft which can fly both like a plane and a helicopter. They were practicing touch-and-go's and buzzed over us. We also saw several marine go-fast gun boats practicing with lots of marines and fire power aboard.

Today, 12/5/08, was a tad warmer but overcast. We ran down to Wrightsville Beach and are now anchored again.

Pictures will be forthcoming, so we hope you enjoy the blog. See you back in NC in June!

June 14, 2007 Cary, NC

We are home! We crossed from South Carolina into North Carolina on Saturday and began to reminisce! We had a great trip but coming home is always good. Because our slip in Morehead City was rented, we spent the final night in Swansboro, NC, about 25 miles from the home slip. It was good to be back in NC.

As we came north, we got to see my brother, Tom, and sister-in-law, Carolyn’s new (60 year old) house in the historic town of Conway, SC. They seem to be having a ball fixing it up. We also had a chance to visit with some IBM friends, Frank and Doreen, and new acquaintances we’d met on the trip. It is always fun to catch up.

Of course, Rick and I had to check out the latest with his son, so we also stopped in the anchorage near Wrightsville Beach, NC and spent an evening with Matt and his girlfriend, Sunny, on Rickshaw. Matt brought his boat over to ours bearing a gift of just-caught grouper. I had flank steak so we had a feast. As the sun was going down, a sailor on the boat next to us sounded a conch shell which produced a long horn-like sound and then another boat answered with the same sound. We wondered what that meant but were too far away to ask. We passed them the next day and asked them on the radio. They had just come from the Bahamas where it is a custom among the locals that when the sun goes down to say thanks for a wonderful day and a beautiful sunset. We thought that was pretty cool…got to get a conch shell!!

It took a few more days to get back to our home slip at the Morehead City Yacht Basin. We pulled in around 4:00 as a thunder storm was threatening. We saw our friends, Lenny and Pam, and had another wonderful meal and lots of laughs.

We picked up the rental car, cleaned the boat yesterday and drove back to Cary. We plan to decompress for a couple of days before we start to tackle the Cary To-Do List! And then back to boat chores to get ready for the next adventure.

Not to be missed however, are a few tidbits during the final push home.

Turns out both Georgia and South Carolina have some real ICW “challenges” since their portion of the waterway doesn’t seem to be maintained as well as Florida and North Carolina. We found more “skinny” water … meaning shallow … in that section than anywhere else. The Dawho River in SC apparently hasn’t been dredged in a while, and the charts were totally inaccurate; showing depths of 21 feet where there were actually only 7 feet. It was exciting (he means scary!).

Then at the Osprey Marina near Myrtle Beach, Rick was loading some provisions … read beer … into the refrigerator. For those of you who’ve seen the boat, the refrigerator has top-lift doors that are supported by gas-compressed hinges. While he was moving things into one side, the top-door gave way and did a big “crunch” on his left hand. He had a real “goose egg” of a bruise, but it is getting better now, so he’ll have to get back to work …!

The last item of interest … of course only to us … was the Sunset Beach, NC pontoon bridge. It only opens on the hour, so we tried hard to time our passage to make the next opening by speeding up slightly. We arrived at the bridge at 8:57AM for the 9:00AM … timed it pretty well, actually … only to hear the bridge tender announce over the radio that the bridge was closed due to a low tide, and would probably open in an hour. Sunset Beach, NC has staunchly opposed the construction of a normal 65 foot bridge to their island. They’d rather keep their one-lane floating pontoon bridge. When the tide is exceptionally low, the pontoons won’t float far enough to either side to get the thing open … voila … we wait. We finally got through at 10:00AM.

This is one of the few hand-driven ferrys still around. This one is in SC.

As we rounded the ICW towards Georgetown, SC this pretty sail boat passed us. It may have been a tourist sailboat but we weren't sure.

A snowy egret in the trees.

When we first saw the back of this boat we thought it was a billboard but as it turned slowly in the ICW we realized it was a tour boat. When Tom picked us up he took us to their property, about 1/2 mile from our marina. In addition to a tour boat, they also have a zoo! We saw camels, lots of different kinds of deer, buffalo, zebras and peacocks. It was so weird to see a zoo of this size on the ICW in South Carolina.

This is the Sunset Beach bridge mentioned above. At the point of this picture, we had not been informed that the bridge wouldn't open for another hour so the Capt. is still smiling.

It finally opened.

This sign, in someone's backyard, really does say....New York 657 miles north - Miami 720 miles south. Now we know!

The following is not a UFO. It is an Osprey ... the new strategic troop/supply aircraft of the future for our Marines.

As we passed Camp Legune, several of the Osprey aircraft were practicing touch and go's. Right over our heads! There has been a lot of controversy over the last few years about this new Marine craft, but it seems to have finaly settled out. It is an amazing thing to see it fly fast forward and then suddenly hover. Go Marines ...!

This guy was hanging out at the last marina we stayed in before going to our home slip, his name is Clyde. We were told he bit so we stayed away from him.

YA-HOO! Our slip is just a few miles from the welcome sign.

Just a few interesting stats from our trip:

Total Trip Days: 158 (including 2 months for boat repair)
Total Days on the water: 96
Travel Days: 54
Total Engine Hours: 307
Miles Traveled: 2369 statute miles
Average Speed: 7.7 mph
Diesel used: approximately 1300 gallons
Gallons per hour: 4.24
Liked Most: Islamorada, FL anchorage,
Liked Least: Storms and lightening and south Florida bridges!

We learned a lot more about the boat on this trip and have gained confidence in our ability to handle her. We also used the tides and weather to our advantage much more than in the past so that we were more comfortable (and less stressed). Of course, it is a boat, so there will always be challenges ahead. We have some boat beautification projects (teak work, paint, etc) to complete in the next several weeks, so we will stay busy.

Currently, we are thinking about leaving in late August to head back north...we are not sure exactly where but we may try to see the leaves change on the Hudson River if the timing works out. Thanks for all the kind words about the blog. We had fun putting it together. We'll start the next installment this fall.