Remembering 2011

With the holidays over we want to wish our friends and family a Happy New Year.

After taking down the decorations, cleaning the house, and provisioning the boat, we will return to s/v Kinvara for the winter months. This will be the start of a new experience without Pretzel aboard so this time we will go where the wind blows and do some more off shore sailing. Our blog will start again in the New Year once back aboard. Good health and happiness to all of our friends for 2012.

Pumpkin Key, Florida Keys

Chillin in Marathon, Florida Keys

Peter completed his scuba certification
Marathon, FL



Our southern most point in the US
Mile 0   Key West, FL



Back home in April,
 O'Shea's from Ireland visit



May in the UK
 The first Bugg family reunion

June..Jane's first overnight sail
Cape Canaveral Florida  to St Mary Georgia

August
Pat & Lynn Acheson from UK visit for a week

September
Disney with the UK Bugg's

October visit from Jane's brother, Jim

November we moved s/v Kinvara from
Brunswick, GA to Cape Canavaral, FL
Thanksgiving in St Mary's Georgia










2011 Christmas

Our Christmas this year began  when Sarah and Eric arrived on Friday night Dec. 16th. We spent the entire day Saturday in Disney Hollywood Studios and Epcot World Showcase. A delicious dinner at the British restaurant was consumed before watching the Candle Light performance and spectacular fireworks. On Sunday the "old folks" stayed home to recover while the young-uns went to Seaworld and Downtown Disney. Monday we joined Sarah and Eric again to go into Animal Kingdom and back to Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family festival of lights. Tuesday we stayed home to have our Christmas together, opening presents and having steaks on the grill.

Sarah's favorite character, Goofy

A visit to the orange groves on Tuesday

After Sarah and Eric left on Tuesday night we faced our first Christmas without family around. With Pretzel also gone the house was very quiet and "empty".  On Christmas Eve we had an open house for our friends who were also here and had such a good time. Christmas Day we had family friends from Conneticut for dinner. Richard, Chris, Lily, & Georgia arrived about 5Pm and we had a wonderful dinner and visit.

Richard, Peter and the girls after opening
their Christmas cracker!

December 15, 2011 Pretzel

The tree is all trimmed.

The gifts are all wrapped.

The songs are all sung,

And travel plans mapped.

And still there's a sadness

That lies in our hearts,

For Pretzel who is gone

And a love now apart.

Her stocking is missing,

With toys and a treat.

Our lap is now empty,

And space at our feet.

We'll remember this season

God's little gift too,

With wonderful memories

To treasure life through.

Run free little one



Christmas Events

Our first event of the holiday season was in Disney's Epcot park. We went with a group of 22 friends to the German pavilion for a buffet dinner and then into the American Gardens amphitheater for the candle light ceremony. It is a small adult choir centered on the stage in the shape of a tree. they are flanked on each side by a huge number of youth chorus, mostly local. The choirs sing seasonal songs then a guest reader narrates the Christmas story with musical accompaniment. Our guest reader was Isabella Rosselini.

This is in the Disney Boardwalk Inn
It speaks for itself. We found 11 hidden Micky heads

Everything made of chocolate!

Stage right in the theater

An awesome sight.

Returning Home

On Tuesday Nov. 29th we left the Titisville mooring field around 8AM to make the first bridge opening on the way to Harbortown Marina.  We had great weather along the way. the trip took about 2.5 hours but we missed the next bridge opening on the Canaveral canal so we had to run along the ICW for 30 minutes. After passing through the Christa Mc Cauliff lift bridge we had 2 miles to go to our marina. Along the way Jane spotted a large dolphin off the bow. It playfully rode in the bow wave the entire way. Peter put the boat in auto and came forward to watch. This was the largest dolphin we had seen and it was really having fun. It veered off a few times and jumped and splashed off the sides. When we pulled off the canal into the marina for diesel the dolphin came into the little harbor and started splashing around chasing fish. What a nice surprise and welcome back to Harbortown Marina. this is the same place we stored Kinvara last spring before moving out of Florida for hurricane season.

So now that we are back home we have started the Christmas decorating. This year we have 3 trees to accommodate all our ornaments. We love the way it turned out this year!

The newest tree has all our boating destination
ornaments on it. Great memories.



Our original tree from Massachusetts. We finally have room for all the ornaments.  We love the new fireplace...especially ready for Christmas!

A Sad Note

About an hour out of Titusville we listened to Coast Guard warnings of an out of control boat and 1 person in the water.  As we crossed through the NASA haul over canal and approached the Titusville train bridge we could see a police boat with lights flashing and 2 smaller power boats around the "out of control" boat. It was only a 12' open fishing boat and was spinning in circles.  Once moored in Titusville we heard on the local news that they found the person in the water. It was a 48 year old man who appeared to try to swim to shore and drowned. He did not have a life jacket on. The water was rough out there with wind advisories out and small craft warnings.  Later we saw the police towing the little open boat into Titusville.  Sad ending to a preventable accident. We should all respect the strength of wind and water.

Titusville

We woke to a windy and overcast morning in Daytona. We made the decision to leave and get to Titusville so that tomorrow we would make it back to our marina in Cape Canaveral. We fought wind and occasional rain and at times up to 3knot current from the Ponce Inlet. It was one of those days when all the elements were stacked against us. The day was brightened by the wild life we passed along the way. Just outside Daytona Beach we passed three Eagles on a rocky outcrop where we had seen them on our last trip. We were escorted by Dolphins all the way down the ICW, not the same ones all the way!!!!!!!! As usual the bird life was extensive and because of the bad weather most were perched on small islands and bridge abutments. We watched several Osprey perching on inter ICW day marks munching on their prey. It was disturbing watching some of the fish trying to wriggle to freedom to no avail. Nature all around us.
The Admiral worked wonders in the galley today. That is not to say she doesn't do this every day, but today was special. An hour or so after leaving Daytona she cooked up some awesome scrambled eggs, toast and coffee.  Later in the day she cooked a batch of chocolate chip cookies accompanied with hot steaming tea, yum yum. The day's culinary delights finished with Chicken Cordon Blue and Stove Top Stuffing. How good was all that?

Tea and Chocolate Chip Cookies

 We arrived in Titusville at three o'clock and picked up a mooring in 20 knot winds. Once again the crew performed flawlessly. We doubled up on the lines for peace of mind because a cold front is moving through the state and will not clear until after midnight.

Crazy skies heralding the cold front.

Daytona Beach

Today we travelled 54 miles in more time than it took us yesterday to go 61 miles. We left St Augustine with the tidal current and made it easily through Matanzas Inlet, a place known for terrible shoaling. We came through at almost high tide but found it had been dredged and we had no problems at all.  There were a lot of boats moving south along the ICW and a lot of pleasure boats out. We forgot it was the weekend so we had to deal with lots of rolling waves from boats moving by at high speed. That also slows down our forward speed as well as running against the current and wind for at least half of the day. 

When we turned on the GPS this morning we discovered the autopilot was 180' off the compass reading. Because of that our screen was completely in reverse. The boat icon was upside down and travelling in reverse. Try following a route in that mode!  Anyway about half way to Daytona we found a manual which explained how to recalibrate the autopilot. It worked so we hope it is correct tomorrow too!

Osprey having lunch in St Augustine

We pulled into Halifax Harbor marina for the night. The wind was blowing 20 and the current was fierce so we decided not to anchor.  Docking was not an easy feat either with the wind...and the dock hand who came to help was useless and tied the lines too loose. Our boat kept drifting into the piling between slips.  Once we retied the lines we eventually relaxed. It was so much easier to do this trip last year in 26 hours going outside!

We had a nice surprise after sunset. Three boats down from us they were decorating it with Christmas lights. The Christmas boat parade must be next weekend. Pretty!


partly done






St Augustine...again!

We came through here last year and stayed a week. This trip it's only overnight and we won't even go ashore. hanging on a mooring ball. It's a great deal at $20.20 per night.  The trip was 61 miles and went faster than we expected. We actually had the current almost the entire trip here. At the top speed we registered 11mph coming toward the St Augustine Inlet.  We tied up to the ball by 3:30 then sat and relaxed....and watched 4-5 boats try to cross an area that has shoaled and run aground!  Peter tried to warn a few on VHF but they did not respond. It's not fun to run aground but especially so when there is an audience! Luckily everyone was able to back off the mud and free themselves. Getting dark now at 5:30PM so we will have to think about dinner.

Fernandina Harbor Marina

Our plan was to leave St Mary, GA and travel to St Augustine today. Unfortunately we realized it was 70 miles and the currents and tides would not let us go that far before dark. You do not want to travel the ICW in the dark. So we waited in St Mary's until after high tide, 9:30 AM, so we could get off the dock easily.  there is up to a 4k current to work against.  Our dock mates, Mick and Tony from Australia, pushed off just before us. They are headed outside to Ft Lauderdale. Their boat cannot travel inside due to mast height. Eventually they will go through the Panama Canal and cross the Pacific to Australia.

Ahquabi leaving to dock

Safe travels to Australia!

We left the dock next without any difficulties. The trip out the St Mary's River was right at high tide and the current was with us so the first 6 miles or so were very easy.
As Ahquabi continued out the river we turned to starboard to head south toward Fernandina Beach. The outgoing tide caught up with us and we quickly went from 8mph to 2mph. The entire trip, about 8 miles took us 2.5 hours. This was our first time on this part of the ICW since 2009. Two years ago we spent Thanksgiving here and remembered well the paper plants. Back then we said, never again, but here we are!
We will leave at first light, about 6:30AM, and with the rising tide to travel the 60 miles to St Augustine.
There is a rocket launch tomorrow morning at 10AM so we should clearly see it.

Paper plant

Boats from Monrovia and Nassau
loading up 

The American Cruise Line now comes to
Fernandina harbor Marina

Thanksgiving in St Mary's

Thanksgiving in St Mary's Georgia was an experience. Two years ago when coming south on the ICW we stayed at Fernandina Harbor Marina for thanksgiving and had 5 guests aboard. This year since we were moving the boat anyway we decided to try St Mary's. We arrived on Saturday and took a space at the face dock with a view of the harbor. We could watch all the boats coming and going. At a rate of .75 per foot per day it was the best bargain!

We dressed ship in the morning

Peter had to tie off the wind
generator so it would not
tear our flags!

The morning was busy. Jane made a sweet potato casserole...island style with rum and coconut milk. She then made a port wine cranberry sauce and Peter made his traditional trifle dessert. That took most of the morning. By 11AM we sat down to take a breather but ended up watching a mess in the harbor. The wind was blowing 25 and gusting to 30-35 against the outgoing tidal current. It created a maelstrom where the anchored boats were not laying to their anchor but bouncing around in all different directions. Some boats dragged anchor and many others simply moved to different locations because they were bouncing too close to other boats. This lasted a good part of the next 3-4 hours. There were probably many who did not leave their boat to come ashore for dinner.
We left our boat about 12:15 and quickly found a table spot then joined the line. We had all of our traditional foods available, just not really hot, but nice. We sat with the father and son, Mick and Tony, who are sailing their boat back to Australia. It turned out to be a lovely day but we did miss our family in New Hampshire.

Seaview Hotel who provides turkey and ham.

Yum! A feast for Thanksgiving!

Out and About in St Mary's Georgia

This is a charming little town which is just right for a few days visit. You just have to deal with the no see ums every morning!


Waterfront park



Beautiful fountain!

Main Street



Submarine museum
King's Bay Submarine Station
is just a few miles north

Main Street gift shop

The Blue Goose Wine & Coffee shop

Office building

Main Street Inn

Main Street Catholic church....not in use anymore.
used for meetings, I think.
Beautifully preserved

Jekyll Island to St Mary, Georgia



Dawn in St. Mary's


We arrived at St Mary's, Georgia on Saturday after a uneventful four or five hour run on the ICW. Since we first traveled down the Ditch(ICW) we were warned by many boaters to avoid transiting through Georgia at all costs. We did not heed their advice and we have cruised through with some stress but no problems. You do have to be alert at all times and follow the markers and your charts diligently at all times. 

A Canadian couple in a small Non-Such(type of boat), decided to overtake us, which did not make me feel too happy, but shortly after passing they decided to cut some red markers and came to a sudden stop when they ran aground on a shoal. I don't need to tell you how I felt as we passed by on the correct side of the markers. Not long after we passed they backed off and got underway again only to put the pedal to the metal and zip by us once more to make sure they got to St Mary's before us. Just as an addendum to the story, we could have blown their socks off if we had cranked up the engine just another rev or two but we were in no rush and decided to let them feel good and superior to us lowly Americans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once again we experienced the power of our armed forces on our way down the sound. We passed a Nuclear Submarine base with huge hangers and one Submarine tied up to the dock. needless to say security was high and we slid on by as quickly as possible. For those of you who have followed our blog on previous occasions you remember the stories and pictures about Cumberland Island. As we passed this time we only saw one wild horse on the shore.

As promised the week in St.Mary's is living up to expectations. Each evening at 5:30 happy hour is held at the local hotel. 4 draft beers for $5, and we all bring snacks to share. The town provides transportation to the grocery store etc. so Jane has made a few trips to stock up for Thanksgiving. She is making sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce and I am making a trifle for desert. The turkey and ham will be provided by the town and everything else provided by boaters.   

The boating community is very diverse here. Of course there are many Canadian boats but there are also boats from England, Australia and New Zealand joining all of us Americans preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving together. We will miss our family but we wish them and all our friends a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving.