2012-04-25 - in Myrtle Beach, SC

We had a great day together at Broadway at the Beach.  We ended up hitting WonderWorks first.  This is a great spot for kids.  (So much so that there were also 200 school kids there enjoying the day!)  It was a cross between the science centre and a kids museum - lots to do.  We finally got to MagiQuest where the kids continued on their wizard journey.    Ben ended up coming back with us to spend the night at the boat. 

Dylan loved the giant bubbles



fun with interactive screens

 

Kerry points out all the great spots in the Bahamas on the large Google Earth display

Astronaut Dylan

Connor and Ben get suited up for the ropes challenge course (Kerry and I even did it!) Awesome!!!

Good times back at the boat!

2012-04-24 - to Myrtle Beach, SC



We stayed on the town dock last and were joined in the morning by another boat, 'Scandia' and a boat we were on the dock with in Beaufort a couple of days ago, 'Kajon'.  We moved off at 9:00am to catch the current/tide up the Waccammaw River.  It is a beautiful piece of the ICW with thick forest running the full length of the river.  Turtles are seen in great quantities sunning themselves on fallen logs.  Now the water has turned the colour of Cola from the vegetation falling in the water and gives Hi-5 a lovely brown moustache!  We headed to Myrtle Beach today to join up with great friends from home Joanne, Sean and their children Ben and Sarah who are on vacation.  Connor is beside himself that he finally gets to see his best bud!
After we docked we contacted Enterprise Car Rental.  They come out all the way to the marina (which is about 25 minutes away from town) so it is a great service.  They had to come right away as it was getting late in the day so we quickly packed everything up and waited for the pick up.  We are on their external dock.  It is a dock that is separated from the rest of the marina and used as an extra dock, if there isn't room for larger or wider boats in their marina.  The best thing is they give you a golf cart so that you can access it - so this was a fun addition.  We finally got our car and then headed down to the hotel to meet up with our friends.  We had a great evening together catching up.  Tomorrow we plan to meet up at Broadway at the Beach - where the kids are dying to play at MagiQuest! 



2012-04-23 - to Georgetown, SC





 After retreiving both of our anchors we were off again ready to start another day.  As usual I spent most of the day inside doing school, etc. and Kerry handled the helm.  It was very gusty today - sometimes gusting to 25 knots.  From inside, I could feel the boat pull forward, move quickly for a minute and then slow down (Kerry later said that he saw 9.5 knots during the gusts). Later in the day we actually felt the boat heel over (just a little)!  We arrived in Georgetown at 5:30pm  

searching inside a tree for Geocache #8

and decided to land at the town dock.  We were here for last Hallowe'en and had fun in the town.   Connor and I checked the geocache website and found that there were 3 geocaches that were close by.  With GPS in hand...Connor lead me to each one.  He found all 3 as well!  We are so cold now that we are all digging out our long pants, sweaters and (gasp!) socks. 

2012-04-22 - to Charleston, SC (Wappoo Creek)

We woke up, fresh and ready to go.  Kerry made a quick radio call to the first bridge that we needed to go under to ensure that they would open up on demand.  We have a lot of literature that outlines the times and restrictions of bridge openings...but, they are never as up to date as you would want.  So, a quick call ahead to check things out is necessary -  especially since there are strong currents here and you just can't wait outside the bridge for any length of time as the current will quickly sweep you towards the bridge.  All was well, the bridge opened up at 7:30am and we were off.  It drizzled off and on the entire day but, with our enclosure, we stayed nice and toasty on the inside.  (I didn't mention that the enclosure went up a couple of days ago .... a harsh reminder that we are not in warm climate anymore (we hadn't had it on for quite some time)).

 We have now settled into a routine on the boat.  Once we both get the boat going, I retire to the inside of the boat to start on the days school lessons.  Connor quickly reminded me, however, that it was the weekend and 'I'...that's me...deserved a day off.  How sweet, I thought, but seriously...we are a bit behind on a few subjects...so, we really need to fill our days with catching up.  So, I manage the boys on the inside and Kerry manages the outside.   We cross paths only to pass up lunch and I take over for brief moments in the day.  We made it just outside of Charleston harbour by 5:30pm and anchored in a small creek using the Bahamian anchoring technique (2 anchors) to prevent us from swinging in a narrow passage.  Just as we dug in and turned off the engines, the skies opened up and it poured a bit more.  We have been out of the Bahamas for almost 2 weeks now and are certainly missing the warmer weather.  We just heard tonight from another cruiser that it was snowing in Upstate New York where they are going.  yikes.  What's the rush!

2012-04-21 - to Beaufort, South Carolina

 Another full day on the water.  We pulled into Beaufort, SC at 4:30pm, an hour ahead of schedule, as we had the currents in our favour all day.  Connor was so excited when he learned we were coming here as he just loves the waterfront park.We pulled up to the town dock and he immediately grabbed the hand held radio and, with our permission, ran off to the park.  We just don't move that fast as we still needed to adjust lines, put a few things away, and get Dylan ready.  We shortly joined up with him and watched him play until close to dark.  The kids seem to join in in games of tag or hide and seek and just have so much fun.  For Dylan they do have a large special needs swing,

but he just wasn't really into it, unfortunately.  He really was tickled watching them spin around on the turning rope structure and seeing them chase after each other.   He had a blast.   As the sun was setting in the sky I managed to pull Connor away to do one geocache in town.  It was a little tricky to find, but Connor managed to do it.  It turned out that it was only about 100 feet from our boat!



geocache #7



2012-04-20 - in Savannah, GA

We really need to come home soon as we are starting to look like scurvy pirates! 

We headed into Savannah today to check out the sites.  Lots of walking, site seeing, checking out the craft market along the riverfront, ice cream, searching for another geocache and more walking.......



Cool exhibit on a wall that you can write what you wanted to do before you die!
Connor wrote parasailing....and Dylan wanted to go to a Rock Concert!

Connor gets his first caricature!

....what do you think?





2012-04-19 - to Isle of Hope, GA (Savannah)

Long day on the water.  We pulled into the anchorage outside of Isle of Hope Marina and stayed on the boat for the whole evening.  Tomorrow we are going to take a day off and head into Savannah!

2012-04-18 - to Doboy Island, GA

We took the morning to see if we could find a couple of geocaches.  Connor and I went out on bikes and were out for a couple of hours. 
We only found one of them, unfortunately.  Both were very tricky!

Dylan just loves Mario!

2012-04-17 - to Jekyll Island, GA

We arrived in Jekyll island around noon after a short trip.  We wanted to explore the town and check out the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  We missed the opportunity on the way down and, since we have seen so many turtles on this trip, it seemed so relevant to learn more about them.  This center is a hospital as well as for learning all about turtles in the area.  The centre receives calls for turtles in distress and the turtles come to the centre for treatment, if necessary.  Some have unfortunately been hit by boats, wrapped in nets, or (as in one little green sea turtle) gone through a dredger.  They do their best to treat and release as soon as they can.  When we first arrived we saw a very large Loggerhead who had to have her front flipper removed as it was infected from being trapped in netting.  She will be fine and will be released soon.  One thing is they use honey to pack the wound as it is natural and helps the wound heal.  They pour liquid honey in the site and then pack with honey comb. 

Connor observes a small Green Sea Turtle getting her shell worked on in the treatment room

Dylan and the small hatchling check each other out!

Riding back to the marina under the beautiful trees draped with Spanish Moss

2012-04-16 - to Amelia River (Fernandina Beach, FL)

2012-04-15 - in St. Augustine, FL

We landed in town to take on St. Augustine again.  It's a great spot.  We spent lots of time here on our way down - doing the Pirate Museum, Castillo de San Marcos (fort), Ripleys, Red Train, etc.  We ended up doing the Pirate Museum again as per Connors request.  It is a great museum afterall.  We spent most of the time after that on the pedestrian marketplace enjoying the shops and the people.  Dylan got the chance to pet a Therapy Dog in Training.  'Abbey' had her training vest on and most people were not allowed to touch her while she was 'working'.  But, when the owner saw Dylan they let hem have a pet.  Abbey is a great Dane and she towered over Dylan in his chair.  Very gentle and very nice dog.  I am sure she will pass!!

our first microcache!

Next we had a chance to do a couple of geocaches in the area.  This one that Connor is holding is a 'microcache'.  It is a very small magnet placed at the coordinates that the owner has set.  This one was a tough one as we had never seen a cache this small.  Usually they are small containers full of trinkets, travel bugs and a notepad.  This little guy was stuck to the bottom of a fire hydrant!  very tricky!!

Posing with the Royal family of St. Augustine

FROM CONNOR:  Today, we went to the Spanish Easter celebration.  Did you know there is a lot of Spanish history in St. Augustine?  Queen Mariana commissioned the fort Castillo de San Marcos.  The Easter festival happens each year.  A group is chosen to be the Royal family.  How the Royal Family is picked is they have to be able to trace their heritage back to 1672 Spain to be able to portray the family.  There are only 3 people in the Royal family because the husband died.  The son became the king.  The 'fromajardis' is a spanish cheese pastry that is celebrated by the Royal family as a remembrance of the late 1799s when the Menorcans first came to St. Augustine.   We got to eat the fromajardis and some other spanish cookies.  They were good. The  They also performed some dancing for the crowd. 

Dylan enjoys the dancing!

2012-04-14 - to St. Augustine, FL

2012-04-13 - to Ponce de Leon, FL

2012-04-12 - In Cape Canaveral, FL

Connor had an opportunity to head out with a captain today on his fishing charter.  Connor was asking so many questions to him the night before that he offered to take him on the charter that he had planned for the day.  He had a great day overall - they caught 4 king mackerel - Connor was so excited about it. 

After he left to go on the charter we headed down the dock to jump back into the van to do some other errands.   To our surprise we saw a very large manatee floating on his back licking the drops from a hose on the docks.  We had seen manatee from a distance, but never like this.  Later, after we shopped and returned the van, we had three manatees all gently taking turns with each other at the hose. It was truly special to see.

Connor heading out fishing.  (he's on the right seat up on top!)

...so cute!

2012-04-11 - In Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA

2012-04-10 and 11 - to Cape Canaveral, Florida

We pulled away from our anchorage at Great Sale Cay at 9:15am.  We had to time it so that we entered the inlet at Cape Canaveral, we would have light.  The anchorage was surreal, with no difference between the sea and sky.  We coasted across the banks most of the day.  It was again, very calm and the water was so clear that you could see straight to the bottom.  I lay on the trampoline between the bows and watched the grassy floor of the bank go by – seeing the occasional starfish and sea cucumber.  At one point a dolphin came and was swimming between the hulls as Connor and I watched.  By the time I could let Kerry know he took one turn, went down and out of sight.  We took turns taking rests as we were going to go straight to Florida and would need to be alert during the night.  As we were making our way over the banks we had another surprising guest - a ‘hawk’ of some sort landed on our boat in a state of exhaustion.  His wings remained drooped beside his body.  He remained with us for over 3 hours – occasionally flying around the boat and landing back in his original position.  The last time he took flight he didn’t return.  Not a bit of land was to be seen so we hope that he made it safely to wherever he was going.  Another magical find on the water was a floating red object that we safely retrieved.  It was a perfect Mickey shaped balloon from Walt Disney World.  Dylan loved that and hung onto his find for several hours until he went to bed.  So, on we went.  Mantanilla point was our first waypoint that we were shooting for.  This point is located on the edge of the bank and the Florida Straight.   It is where ocean meets bank and the sea floor drops off from 20 feet to 1000’s of feet.   The transition from bank to ocean was surprisingly seamless, not even a swell.  It was so calm that we

decided to stop the boat and do some bottom fishing.  We stopped at 130 feet and drifted to over 200 feet.  We had never done this type of fishing but learned so much listening and asking questions to fellow boaters and fishermen over the trip.  We waited about 5 minutes. Connor got a bit discouraged and said that he longed for his dock at Treasure Cay where you can pretty much count on the bite of a little fish.  Just then, we got a bite and hauled up a strawberry grouper.  We ended up staying an hour and got 3 ocean triggers and 3 groupers – and lots of other bites/escapes!  The last ocean trigger was returned back to the sea but the others came with us.  As we looked into the water that was already indigo blue, we could see large ocean triggers floating 20 feet below the surface, being illuminated just enough from the sunlight above to see them. They were plentiful and so beautiful to watch.  We decided to make tracks again just as the sun was beginning to set.  We were going to be in complete darkness until 12:15am when the moon would finally rise.  Just as we started the engines and began to pull away lots of dolphins, too many to count, came to play all

around our boat.  Two dolphins were at the bow swimming with the boat and several leaped out of the water beside us.  We all watched in absolute amazement.  What a magical way to start our Gulf Stream crossing.   After that we gave the kids gravol and got them ready for bed.  Kerry and I had to focus on taking rests so that we would make it through the night.  On queue they were both down at 8:00pm and we were in darkness.  The first big ship that crossed our path was a confusing one.  It was a cruise ship and, from all of the lights, it was difficult to find their navigation lights (the red and green lights) that let you

know which way the ship is heading.  Kerry got on the radio and called the ship to ask them.   The captain on the ‘Disney Dream’ was quick to call back, let us know that he was watching us and then flash a high powered spot light in the direction that he was going.  “Thank you very much ‘Disney Dream’, Hi-5 back to 1-6”.   This wasn’t the only ship that we encountered that night.  We had about 6 cargo ships and another cruise ship to contend with.  We first spot them on our radar about 10-15 miles out.  At that point, you make out faint lights in the distance.  Then it is a matter of tracking their position to see if you are on a collision course.  We adjust our speed and direction, if this is the case as you don’t want to cross the path of these large vessels.  It seemed as if we were dealing with these ships one after another.  At 12:15, and right on time, there appeared an orange glow in the S-SE horizon.  It looked as if it was a smoke flare that was let off.  But after a minute or two the moon took shape and rose.  Finally, a bit of light!  Once it was higher in the sky we got to see the water around us.  It was a little more comforting seeing the ships approaching.

After the moon rose, the wind picked up significantly to about 20 knots.  Our calm conditions had

this little guy greeted Kerry on our way into the inlet. 
It sat on his leg and then flitted away.

changed.  We had both sails up and going about 9-10 knots on average.   These conditions continued until about 4 hours from Canaveral.  Then, the winds died down but so did our speed.   As the sun came up we could see the skyline of Florida.  We made it.  We entered the channel and

took a slip at Cape Marina, just opposite the cruise ship port.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t just call it a day. 

We still had to check in with customs.  Normally, a phone call to the customs office has to be made within 15 minutes of landing.  Then, you make your way to the office.  We decided to rent a car to get us to the customs office and to find the local Publix grocery store.  Within an hour of being up over 24 hours, we had a van delivered.  We then visited the customs office, filled the van with groceries (yeah), and made it back to the boat.  Unloading a van of groceries, not an easy feat when you are at the end of a dock in a marina, was quickly taken care of in about an hour!  We put in a few loads of laundry and then made it finally to bed.  A busy day indeed!

2012-04-09 - to Great Sale Cay

We finally pulled away from the docks at Treasure Cay.  We spent the last month here and got to meet so many great people both on the docks and in the homes adjacent.  It was a calm clear day and we used all of it to make it to Great Sale Cay – an anchorage where we spent our last night in the Bahamas.  Tomorrow we will leave to make the crossing to Florida.

2012-04-08 - Treasure Cay

Kim gives Dylan one last 'dip' before she goes!

Connor joins in in a batting game with some of the local children.

 Easter Bunny found us today!  Last night he must have come and placed little hershey kisses all over the boat.  Each kiss was labelled with the kids intials to keep it good and even.  Tamasio and Connor woke up at 5:50am to start the hunt and had a blast finding treats inside and outside of the boat. We were heading over at 6:30am for Sunrise Service at the Coco Beach Bar with the other families...so this time wasn't too bad. Tamasio's mom was going to pick him up after the service though. :(

Kim dropped by to say good-bye.  She and Leon were visiting another wonderful couple, Frank and Marilyn, at the marina.  We first met at the beginning of her vacation when I joined them in a little snorkle/lobster hunt/lionfish expedition.  I was quick to learn that she is a speech pathologist working with kids in a school.  Also, she worked with kids, like Dylan, in the home during the preschool years.  She was awesome with Dylan and I could tell that she loves what she does and the kids that she works with must love her!  We will miss her but hope to stay in touch.

After Tamasio left we decided that we would head to the beach and have a meal together for probably the last time is the Bahamas.  Kerry has been keeping an eye on the weather hoping for a window that would enable us to cross over to Florida.  We have already put bikes away, stowed unecessary things just to be prepared.  We could be leaving as soon as tomorrow.

2012-04-07 - Treasure Cay

We were introduced (by a family in the condos) to a great young lad called Tamasio.  Tamasio's mom works at the Coco Beach Bar and lives in the neighbouring town.   He and Connor got along great and were have a blast doing pretty much all the games that young boys seems to get themselves into....  Nerf  guns, tag, hide and seek and, of course, fishing. In the afternoon we hopped on our bikes with the other family, including Tamasio, and headed to the point where, at low tide, you can wade over to another very small island.   Tamasio ended up having a sleep over on our boat - he was so excited. 

...more fishing

. 

Dylan also sticks a bit of bait on the hook and waits.....

Beach walk