favorite photos

We all have our fav photos which above all others strike our hearts, our souls, or our funny bones. Or maybe we just see something in a photo that catches our eye. 

 Here's mine: it's a shot Ernie took one night looking out at the town of Manteo, Island of Roanoke, NC. The shot is through the portside portlight. There's something surreal about this picture. It's as though the town isn't real at all but looks like a paper picture pasted over the window. That's what appeals to me.

Minnie loves her Dad

But even more, she loves his pants:

Beaufort SC 06/07/15

Beaufort. SC, pronounced bee you fort, is a really green town. Just gorgeous with monstrously large Liveoak trees to be seen throughout the historic district.

We loved that the trees mattered to the townspeople, and were not to be pruned whereby vehicles could go around if need be, like this one, marked with low clearance:

Super shade!

Picturesque yard gardens: oh my!

and well spoken men of honor such as Mr. Robert Smalls who wisely had this to say back in 1895:

Another very old restored church of Beaufort SC founded in 1867:

The Beaufort harbor is lovely with a waterfront just made for people to enjoy and pass the time. Really well done!

Iemanja on a mooring at Beaufort:

We'll be back!

Bill

This is the way we like to see tropical storms sugar out....

The blue dot represents our current position.

Lowes.....$129.00

......and a bit of Reuters ingenuity and walla......we have comfortable temps below decks in what is unseasonably hot weather here in Little River. We arrived on Friday with the forecast of extreme heat for the coming week...now. It's been building and today the predict is for 97!. So off we went to lowes on Friday first thing to get a window mount smallish 5000BTU Frigidaire and a roll of reflectex. This stuff is number one on a boat for tons of uses. After at small amount of fussing as is usually the case on a boat, we've had restful nights and days. This unit only draws 4 amps AC which is a nice amount of current. Doing the math says that maybe this little baby could even be used on a hook using our inverter and dc system. Temps is about 78 below decks. We also have sun fabric shades over the outside of the boat to keep direct sun off the decks. So together, the system seems to be working. 

I guess this one of the pluses of being on a dock :-/

WFN......Spectacular....

We arrive in Little River SC, greeted by record setting heat but hey..... We're here. An overnight sail in which we had to slow way down in order to arrive in Little River at sunup this morning. One thing that is needed to be in every sailors bag of tricks is knowing how and when to slow down. We realized around 1600 yesterday as we were off Georgetown SC that the predicted tstorms would not materialize thus the safe harbor would not be needed.....great but now we were way ahead of a sunup arrival in Little River. Ok.....now we have to slowdown which was actually wonderful. We overtrimmed sails, headed higher than needed and sailed a greater distance all to accomplish a major slow down.  The overnight was stress free other than seeing how slow we could make the boat go. Packed with stars, perfect wind direction, a 0345 moon rise on my watch...:-))))., and just plain great end to this leg of our journey. No tstorms! We head in this morning accompanied by this sunrise. Now.....at the dock.:-(((((, we head to Lowes to get a portable AC to deal with the upcoming early heat wave. We are blessed to be here safe and sound and looking forward to the next leg.....whata f.... night. Yes it was a spectacular run from Charlsteon.

Do I write about this?

We had an experience on our way up the ICW at a 65 ft bridge in Beaufort (pronounced Be-you fort) SC. Just before passing under the bridge, we realized the scene was a man about to jump off, likely to his death or severe injury. There were police above with this man, who grabbed him and pulled him back over and inside the rail. But there was no boat below the bridge other than us, if he had succeeded in jumping. So we stayed. How quickly we went through what steps we would take (dinghy was not in the water). And steps one takes to stay safe first and foremost.

This post is more about the sad state this person was in that would drive a him (or her) to such an extreme measure. You cannot begin to understand or know this person's emotional or physical state.

There is no judgement from us, at least, about the right or wrong-ness of 

suicide. None of us have walked in his or her shoes.

Has this person had help from group therapy, a physician, or med's? Can he or she afford it? I feel so bad for this man at the bridge.

My real question is about acceptance. Many of us accept and love others no matter what religion, skin color, sexual orientation, country of origin, the rich and the poor, and whatever else our diverse differences are. We accept those. And we accept wellness. But do we also accept illness in whatever way it manifests itself? I sure hope so.

In memory of Al: 

I hope you found peace after all, my friend.

Berry's and Abacos trip chart

Here's a pasted chart of our travels to the Berry Islands and the Abaco's this year with southward progress hugging Florida before exiting at Miami and crossing over to Bimini. We anchored on the Bahama Bank before reaching the Berry Islands. We exited the Berry's at Great Harbor (Bullocks Harbor) across the Northwest-Providence Channel and entering the Sea of Abacos. We followed the cays up around to the east and northward until our exit back to the U.S. from Powell Cay. Deciding to skip Florida entirely on the way back, we overnight sailed up to Brunswick GA.

Minnie checking out the leecloth for the overnight sail. She's ready:

Sunset sailing on a beam reach. You can see the boom and mainsail as well as gib from under the bimini/dodger:

basically one tack the whole way.

and then there's the pre-dawn light:

All the wondrous moments you get to enjoy by sailing overnight.

Blue on blue

What can I say. We love blue water.

05/28, 05/29/15 Picture postcard Powell Cay

Powell Cay was so so beautiful. It was postcard picturesque. The Cay is shaped like a boomerang offering wind protection from the north, east, and southeast. Perfect for us. The cay sported two long beaches, a path to the windward side beach, a machinery wreck with lots of fish, cliffs with a dozen Tropicbirds with their very long tails. I dinghed over to the cliffs but they all came out to greet me. I did not venture closer to the cliffs because It seemed like adults were protecting nests possibly.

The photo does Powell no justice:

Powell Cay also became our jump off point from the Abacos heading back to U.S. 

05/26, 05/27/15 Crab Cay

Crab Cay sits just to the east of Nunjack Cay making for a beautiful inlet between the two.  Going through the inlet at higher tide, we found another great beach on Crab's backside which is protected by a sliver of another cay. In the shallows between the islands are some ochre colored starfish, what looked like baby sharks, turtles, and rays. We anchored off Crab, and snorkeled that shoreline and on an artificial reef created by some abandoned machinery in 5-9 feet of water. thousands of fish and a monster sized grouper swam around the wreck. There were waves of little fish, too, that were quite a sight. The cluster of hundreds of fish swam in flowing patterns in and around the openings of the machinery. Wow.

Loved it enough to stay an extra day. Very few boats around so we had remarkable privacy. Friends Ken and Kathy came by from Green Turtle Cay so we all had a nice evening with on their Cat. Nice boat.

Sunset at Crab. That looks to be a Kadey Krogen power vessel in the foreground.

Cockpit lighting with Minnie:

05/25/15 Feral pigs

We made a stop at No Name Cay because we heard it had feral pigs and we were admittedly drawn to a beautiful beach. I packed up apple chunks and carrots for them and fresh water. What I didn't know was that the pigs didn't want healthy snacks, oh no, nothing but dog kibble for them. Someone before us was feeding them kibble. Real cuties they were:

Doboy Island

We left Lanier Island this morning and headed north on the ICW. A short day landed us in Doboy island on the Back river. Wonderful and all alone this is. With a moon rise at 2240 tonight, that should give us some nice stargazing prior to that. I'll fade by then anyway so it's good timing. We're talking about heading outside tomorrow and completing the run up to Charleston. Not predicted to be much wind but we should be able to make good progress if we have flattish seas. 48 hours or so should get us there. 

Of course Minnie doesn't care to much...

Haven't put this away just yet.....

E

Important equipment

As cruiser's we all have our own definition of essential equipment on our boats. Then there's important equipment, and then how to live more comfortably equipment. Sometimes the latter two are synonymous.  

Take for instance on Iemanja, we think a water-maker is important. No running in to a harbor driven by a need to refill water tanks. And we get showers every day that consume more than a quart of water. To us , it's important, and it makes live-a-board life more comfortable.

Here's our list of important and comfortable equipment; not in order of priority:

•Water-maker. Keeps you away from marinas longer. 

•Power windlass.

•Alternative energy-- solar or wind.

•LED lighting.

•Trustworthy dinghy and motor.

•Fresh and salt water at a sink. 

•Seltzer maker. 

•Propane galley stove.

•At least one power winch is really nice:         it's utility is clear in stormy weather or if anyone is upper body injured. And just plain nice on an everyday basis.

•Enough main engine horsepower to make 6 knots at cruising speed so that you'll have enough HP to get away from danger in strong current.

•Double reef capability, or more.

•Roller furler jib.

•Fridge and freezer.

•SSB, AIS, VHF.

•Radar and nav software in cockpit ( can be chart plotter, or iPhone, or iPad).

•An inverter.

•Heater. 

•Autopilot.

•Cabin fans. 

•Deck/anchor wash (sea water).

•Safety equipment, like MOB.

•Shower( in or/and out, or sun-shower).

•A well working head.

•Sun and wind protection - including  dodgers, biminis, or awnings, or sun curtains made of shade landscape fabric.

•Dual water/fuel filters like raycor to change from one filter to the other on the fly. Sweet.

•Cockpit table for meals.

•Kedge anchor. Also for putting bow up in a swell.

•Rocna primary anchor or spade. Sleep peacefully.

•Hatch screens

•Fly swatter - horseflies on the ICW are nasty.

Is all this essential? Well, no. Does it make life more comfortable. More fun? And safer? A very big yes. 

Watching others anchor, usually from afar. 05/24/15

We all like to people watch, or most of us do. And one of the joys of not being last in an anchorage is to watch others anchor. Okay, everyone who's a newbie gets a buy because we all had to start at the beginning. Never-the-less, it's still fun to watch. 

And then there's Ernie. When the middle aged couple, just the two them on a 54 ft cat were making their fourth failing attempt at hooking a mooring ball, he couldn't help but go over in the dinghy to assist. We were anchored nearby and the dinghy was ready to go. 

Man on the helm, woman on the bow doing the muscle work. Hmmm.

She has the bridle, she doesn't have it, he over-runs it (likely can't see it cause he's so high up and she gave no signal). Ernie's on his way. Then I see it about the same time Ernie rounds the big cat-- she's in the water. Omg. Did she drop the boat hook and dive in to fetch it? Did she not let go and get pulled off her boat? We'll never know. Ernie got to her. But she insisted in swimming back to the cat. How the helmsman could see her to not run over her Is a miracle. (I'm a firm believer in miracles). 

Rest of story: when she's back at the bow, Ernie hands her each separate half of the bridle to cleat to their boat and he's done his good deed. 

Hopefully the couple found it easier each time they moor or dock or anchor wherever their travels take them. Practice  truly does make better.

Well

Well we're sitting here and working out our ideas of where to go from here. Let's think about this in terms of priorities. Can we tolerate wearing cloths? If yes.....then go on northward. If no... we may as well go back where we came from ......

Bahamas blues......

So this morning as I wake in Lanier anchorage in GA, I think I've got what's called "the Bahamas Blues". Haven't seen the water this calm for a long time. :-//. Onward!:-))

Brunswick GA

So in the middle of the trip from the abacos, I say to Bette...."how about we stop in Brunswick GA. The diesel is cheaper, there's a great pizza place and with the weather a bit unclear this may be a nice place to stage for the the trip up to Little River,.....Iemanjas summer home. Done....tonight I can say that we are safely anchored in the lee of North Lanier Island. A spot that we hit on the way down and liked very much. Tomorrow we'll head over for a night at the dock at Brunswick Landing Marina. Fuel, showers, trash, a nice bike ride to Publix foods.and......pizza!