New Edition to the Family

Last fall Peter decided to donate our ford Explorer to a veterans group.  It was really a fabulous car but the whole undercarriage was rusted.....a result of living in the Northeast with all the snow, salt, & sand in the winter.  Every now and then we would find a puddle underneath the car indicating another little leak.  Finally our only other option was to get a whole new chassis or dispose of the Explorer.  We decided to downsize to our 1 car. So for the last 6 months we have used one car successfully but... we have found that we needed more room in a car, especially when moving boat gear back and forth, when we buy something large, or when we travel with more than 2 people.

Soooo on Friday we started our new vehicle search. We finally decided on a new Ford Escape XLT.  It fulfills all our needs for a second car and we were able to negotiate a great price.  The car is a 2011 and it has all the options it could have, even some we don't really need, but they were part of the package. We love the color and it fits in our garage beside the Lexus!  So now we are back to a 2 car family again!

Father's Day

Father's day started as a typical Sunday morning in the Bugg house with Peter watching his news shows and soccer. Jane made a cooked breakfast...a real treat since we have only been doing that once a week since returning from England. Then Peter opened his gift bag...a gas regulator for our barbecue grill, Brita water bottles with the built in filter, and a golf frame Jane found in St Mary's Georgia.  Peter thought that was it until Jane told him about a special trip. 

We left the house at 2PM and arrived at the Disney Grand Floridian Resort. Peter then found out that his surprise was high tea at the Garden View Tea Room.

 

We had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated. Our choice for tea included champagne, English breakfast tea, tea sandwiches, onion tart, duck pate, scone & clotted cream, fruit tart, and dessert choice of strawberries & cream, trifle, or selection of 2 pastries. Everything was served on beautiful fine china.  It was a delightful way to spend the afternoon together!!



Cheers! The strawberry was huge!




Tea sandwiches and hot tea




Dessert pastries




English trifle dessert



Home Projects

Once we returned from Brunswick there were loads of things we had planned to do around the house. Jane started working on adding or changing window treatments, putting her new sewing machine to good use.  Peter started working on the outdoor kitchen.  We received approval to build it a year ago and had the wall partially blocked up when we returned in April. So Peter got down to the business of building the kitchen structure and tiling the counters and walls. We decided to use the same tile we have in the kitchen to blend in with the house.  Once done we went to Home Goods to find a few decorative touches.

We love the pelican model!!  On all of our boat trips through the south we have watched the pelicans around us. They look like a clumsy bird but are really very graceful excellent divers for fish.

Brunswick for Hurricane Season

Wednesday, June 9
We left our dock in St Mary's early while the current was slack and headed 3 miles to the St Mary River Inlet. It was low tide and we were a little concerned about depth but never saw less than 10ft under our keel. When we merged into the ICW channel we spotted several navy boats including a small cutter, two inflatables with mounted machine guns and two tug boats coming from the Naval submarine base. OK, a little excitement ensued while we thought we would see them escort a nuclear submarine in. But to our dismay they kept going out to sea in the very long approach channel to the river. If there was a submarine entering it would be a while and we were anxious to get moving North.
Our trip only took about 6 hours to complete. It was a beautiful day with good wind and we had the ocean to ourselves. We only had to complete about 26 miles.

Love to see those channel markers!
It means we are reaching the end of our trip.

St Simon's lighthouse

Brunswick, GA Route 17 bridge

Our destination for the season.
Brunswick Landing Marina

We arrived at the marina by mid afternoon. Within an hour we had company.  Our friends, Jim & Leslie, live in Brunswick and keep their boat s/v Just Limin at the marina. We met Jim & Leslie the first time on our trip to the Bahamas and again in Jacksonville last fall while moving Kinvara out of the St John's River. It was so nice to see them again. We had dinner that night in a place called Brewburgers. There were at least 10 types of home made burgers which were more like meat loaf than regular burgers.
Thursday, June 9
We were up early (it was too hot to sleep!) to get our boat organized to leave. Jane washed the decks while Peter packed electronics to bring home.  We then cleaned the forward cabin and made the bunk for Fred and Verena to arrive.  That evening Jim and Leslie invited us to their lovely home in Brunswick for dinner.  What else would you have in Georgia?  Fresh shrimp!  Peter was in heaven. Jim grilled shrimp and vegetables which we ate with a delicious coconut rice that Leslie made.  It was such a nice evening.

Jim & Leslie in their lovely home



Peter making himself comfortable in their recliner.
Maggie making herself comfortable in Pretzel's bed.













Friday, June 10
In the morning Peter double tied the lines to the dock and Jane packed her clothes. In the afternoon Leslie picked us up for a short trip to St Simon's Island. It is only a few miles away and a very charming resort town. Leslie took us to one of her favorite places for lunch...speciality is "she-crab" soup. Another great Georgia recipe. We walked through some of the shops and bought a few things before leaving to return to the boat. St Simon's Island is another place we want to return to for another visit!

Fred and Verena left Atlantic City at 3 in the morning and arrived at the marina 14 hours later...about 5PM. They were exhausted but we had enough energy for a few drinks and then dinner again at Brewburgers! You can't avoid their happy hour from 4-8PM and beers for $1.  Once back aboard Kinvara we called it an early night.  The next morning Jane and Verena packed the food while Peter and Fred packed the car. We then all took showers before leaving.  Our trip to Cape Canaveral was about 4.5 hours. We had lunch at the Harbortown Marina then drove our car home.  It's hard to believe that in 3 days we travelled about 200 miles to Brunswick. We are satisfied with our trip and the marina.  The weather was really good during our trip. Since returning there have been late afternoon thunderstorms every day and we have record temperatures again...high 90's.

Overnight Sail Completed!!

Monday morning we prepared Kinvara to depart the dock by 7:30.  We first had to go through a lock then a lift bridge and pass through a channel shared by cruise ships to the ocean. 



Harbortown Marina, Merritt Isl, Florida
Kinvara's home for 2 months.

 

Jane holding the bow line in the lock.

Peter holding the stern line in the lock.

Royal Caribbean ship in port.

There were loads of manatee in the channel. These creatures are very large, somewhat slow moving, and very vulnerable to getting cut by engines. You have to slow down and be very careful to watch where they swim. They are a protected species in Florida.




This was next to the boat in the lock.
It is just the top of it's back.

 

 Our first encounter once outside was a cruise ship returning to port. We felt very small indeed.  As we were passing through the channel to open water we saw large turtles and dolphins. The day started off very exciting! 

A Norwegian Cruise line ship.

It seemed to take forever before we could turn and head North to Georgia. When leaving Port Canaveral you first have to travel south east to avoid shoals then you have to remain very far off shore as a security zone for NASA.  The last shuttle, Endeavor, lifted off the day we left for England, May 16. It landed back at NASA the day after we returned from England, June 1. 

 Once we did turn North, however, we could see launch pads and the assembly buildings for a long time!!   We could see the final shuttle at it's launch pad. We think it is the Endeavor shuttle but not sure. It is lifting off in late June and will be the very last shuttle launch. The picture is a little fuzzy because we were more than 3 miles away and there was a lot of heat haze. The shuttle is in the second set of structures from the left. There is a small white dome next to it. By the time we passed it the time was 11:30AM and 4 hours into our trip.

We could clearly see the shuttle and external
fuel tanks with binoculars.

We have traveled the Florida east coast from Jacksonville twice now but only in the Intracoastal waterway so we knew which landmark was coming up next. This trip would have taken us four days if we stayed inside on the waterway. By going on the ocean side we completed it in 26 hours.  Once the first 7-8 hours had passed we settled into a routine and the time seemed to go by faster.  Around 7PM Jane cooked a skillet dinner and we ate in the cockpit watching the sun setting.  It was a little strange how few boats we saw on this trip. There were some small private motor boats coming or going into the smaller inlets  but only 2 other sailboats of any size.

Pretzel quickly settled in and found a comfortable sleeping area in Jane's seat. When nighttime came she slept in her carry case which zips closed. Pretzel was the only one on board who slept!!

After dinner Jane tried to sleep first with little success. So she took the helm and Peter tried to sleep. He was unable to doze off too. We had such an adrenaline rush of excitement that we were both awake most of the night. It was Jane's first time sailing an overnight and found it not scary at all. We could see lights all along the coastline.  You can follow the google map to see the route we took.

By 5:45AM dawn was beginning. We were approaching the St John's River that leads to Jacksonville,FL. We knew this would be a busy intersection because it is a major military and cargo ship port.

Shrimp boats dragging their nets.

Navy destroyer leaving just as we
passed across the river entrance.

 Lucky for us we had enough light to see what was going on. There must have been at least 15 shrimp fishing boats with their nets down moving all around. Then a cargo ship entered the river in front of us and a US Navy destroyer left the river behind us. So glad this was all in the dawn's early light instead of darkness!! The sunrise was spectacular!!

A very welcome sunrise!

Wild horses on Cumberland Island.

Finally, after 26 hours we made it to the St Mary's River. This is the border between Florida and Georgia.  As we passed in through the river channel we could see wild horses on Cumberland Island. This island is a protected National Park and It's just beautiful. We counted 11 horses on the beach.

We proceeded another 2-3 miles up the river to St Mary's Georgia. There we fueled up and got dock space for a bargain of $1 per foot. Where else can you get a room overnight for $43? As we were fueling we watched 2 little otters swimming around the shoreline. Good thing Pretzel didn't see them! After an outside dinner at a Greek cafe we returned to the boat for some much needed sleep.

St Mary's Georgia
A quiet place to be at this time of year.

Tomorrow we head to our final destination for hurricane season  at Brunswick, Georgia.

Sailing again!

Today as we were getting ready to leave the house I noticed a pair of lovely sand hill cranes with their 2 babies!! Hoping they still have 2 when we return!

Back on board now and it"s HOT!!! The weather said it was 94 where our house is but only 84 where the boat is! No way!! Once you go below the ventilation is limited and we rely on little fans. I made the bed with a bottom sheet only since we won't need any covering!! Jane had to pin a sheet across the back to block the hot late afternoon sun.

She also put up our wind scoop. It's a nylon contraption meant to catch any breeze to scoot it below decks. Fortunately we are facing the wind at the dock. It's really meant to be used when you are anchored and always face into the wind. This is the cruisers form of air conditioning!!

The weather report is favorable for leaving tomorrow so we will be underway by 7:30 at the latest. Only 2 miles east of here we have to pass through a lock and then a lift bridge. We can't get through until 8AM because they have restrictions due to commuting traffic. Once through these we travel about 1-2 miles out of the Cape Canaveral inlet to the ocean. We head northwest to go along the coast of Florida. We hope to stop at the Florida Georgia border at a nice anchorage we saw before when coming south. This is only 30 nautical miles, or a day away from our destination, Brunswick Georgia. If the weather is going to go downhill we just might continue on to get there. There is a 40% chance of a tropical low forming and heading north to Florida so if that is going to happen we will keep going!!

The Day After

Sunday, the day after the reunion everyone met once again at Brandon House Hotel for lunch. It was so nice to see everyone again. There didn't seem to be too many hangovers!

 After lunch there were many farewells again as most of the group left for their drive home...some as much as 5 hours to Liverpool.  The remainder of the group followed Terry Bugg to see the old Mayday Farm area where George Bugg lived, then moved on to 2 other homes, including his last residence with Dolly near the church graveyard where he is buried.  We also saw the house where Terry was born in Brandon. Unfortunately there is no reference for Jessie, George's first wife to help Peter find where she might be buried. 

The Sunday group standing on Mayday Farm property.

Grandad George's Church



Grandad George's gravesite



The Bugg Reunion Saturday May 28. 2011

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

First cousins

Second cousins