New Smyrna Beach,
Florida,
United States
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Since officially leaving Charleston February 2nd, we have been traveling down the Intracoastal Waterway for about a week making sure that everything was working as it should. A couple minor problems with the alternator were sorted out with the help of Errell Steele of Beaufort, SC. Definitely a lifesaver and we appreciate your help help Errell. Also to Port Royal Landing Marina who made us feel more than welcome during our stay. If ya'll are reading this thank you and we'll definitely be back. The restaurant next door by the way has the best food and a club sandwich that was big enough to fed the three of us. Our daily routine has been waking around 6:20am, making coffee, and pulling anchor by first light; usually around 6:45am to 7:00am. On the way someone will be making breakfast, most commonly a grits bowl that consists of instant grits, cheddar cheese, scrambled eggs, and some chalula hot sauce all mixed together. Its fantastic. Austin doesn't really like grits so he's more of a cereal and powdered milk kind of guy. Powdered milk....not too bad. Our refrigerator is pretty small so we don't try and keep many perishables. Lots of pasta and tomato sauce, as well as velvetta shells and cheese. Canned chicken is good for chicken curry and hopefully fresh fish will soon to be on our menu most days. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are eaten mostly for lunch and not only to save space but because they stay fresh longer, we use flour tortillas instead of white bread. To mix it up a bit we've tried putting Cinnamon sugar on the PB&J and it turned out great. I'd write that one down. St. Simons, Ga. was our last stop on the Intracoastal before heading for our first overnight passage. None of us had done one before so we were a little on edge for a while there. Sailing through the sun setting is almost like driving a car while slowly closing your eyes. There's nothing you can do once your miles away from shore, but to face the inevitable, looming darkness and hope you did your chart plotting correctly. After a couple hours though it turned out to be the best experience. You really begin to seep into a relaxed state as you stare off into the far horizon off city lights back on shore. You can't see anything, so your mind isn't racing, thinking about the buoys to the left, the birds diving to the right, or the never ending trail of jellyfish passing by. Just the tiny city lights and the moon light against the water. Actually, the lights of a huge cargo ship or a tug boat are pretty scary, but once there gone its ok. This wasn't what we were expecting leaving St. Simons that morning. Over the VHF radio a distress call had been made to the Jacksonville Coast Guard regarding a 37 foot Sea Ray motorboat taking on water. The standby and calling channel for marine vessels is 16, so we overheard half of the rescue operation. I say half because we were only able to pick up the Coast Guard operator speaking. Apparently there were 7 passengers aboard and the C.G. was asking anybody in the surrounding area to assist. We then proceeded to save 7....nah just joking we weren't anywhere close but we would have. haha From St. Simons we traveled straight to Daytona Beach through the inlet to New Symrna. You know your in Florida when you see shuffleboard tournaments and manatee warning signs. From here we will be heading down the Intracoastal to Cape Canaveral and then another overnight, hopefully to West Palm Beach. Then on to Fort Lauderdale for the Bahama crossing. Well thanks for reading, we'll be putting up pictures regularly as well as updates when we have Internet access. Hope all is well back home and take care.
Brayden, Michael, and Austin
Comments
Living the Life
I love hearing all about your everyday life! The photos are fantastic and so nice to hear of the abundance of wildlife! Keep the reports coming!