Merry Christmas

Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas to all.

We left St. Augustine on 12/23 and spent Christmas in Daytona Beach among the tornadoes. We had lots of rain, thunder and lightning with a tornado 4.3 miles from our boat. Ignorance is bliss, they say, and we had no clue how close it had come to us until the next day when we watched the news.

We are now in Titusville (close to Cocoa Beach and home of the 24 hour surf shop Ron Jon's). We are enjoying fair weather and great marine mammels. We have seen our first Manatees. They are enormous and very docile. It is against the law to pet them so ofcourse we are not touching them! Not even Meghan.

It has been great fun to have Meghan and Dana with us. Having four people on deck for docking is great. How will we get along without them???? Ha Ha.

Steve and I are getting used to life onboard and look forward to our next port of call, wherever that may be? We have gotten used to not making too many plans because you never know what Mother Nature has planned.

Happy New Year from the Captain and The First Mate

St. Augustine

This is the gateway to St. Augustine. The tall structure in the middle is a temporary bridge. The tall section raises up and down on the hour and half hour if boats with tall masts (us) need to pass through. On the left, in front of the cranes, is the marina. You can see parts of the old Bridge of Lions in the front. This is a historic bridge that is being restored. What a project. The good news is the crew stopped working at noon on 12/22 and will not return until 1/2/07....yahoo. This is the oldest house in St. Augustine. Europeans were here as early as the 16oo. The town has many such historic homes with cobbled streets. It also has an Island flair with many moss covered oak trees, palms, tropical plants and balmy weather.

Of course there are many restaurants. Scarlett Oharas came highly recommended. During "Happy Hour" you can get $.25 (ea) shrimp. These are great shrimp from the gulf, big juicy shrimp, delicious. We have sampled many other foods here so don't hesitate to ask us for a suggestion should you be lucky enough to visit here. Thanks for all your comments. We love to read what you write back.

Happy Holidays

Back in Florida

We left San Diego on Monday, December 18th at 6am. It was 37 degrees in Carlsbad. The cold weather wont leave us alone. The good news is we woke up on Tuesday morning in Florida and it was 78 degrees.....shorts, t-shirt, flip flops, beer....you get the picture.
After a day of provisioning and getting over jet lag we left Jacksonville and motored south to St. Augustine. We are planning to spend the next few days here. It is beautiful: Christmas lights, decorations, great food, lots of history, beautiful shops. What could be wrong with this place you may ask??? It is the new bridge they are building right next to the marina. They evidently work all day and night: generators, bright lights, banging, hammering, swearing (us not them). We are not sure we can handle it so we may leave early, not sure. But this place is beautiful and we will post some photos tomorrow.
Happy Holidays from the captain and the crew.

Favorites

We have had some time to think about our last three weeks onboard Fine Line. Here are some of our favorite pictures.

This is our good friend George from Annapolis. We met George and his friend Jim in Norfolk Virginia. Jim is moving his boat to Marathon Fl. George is along to help Jim with the long journey. George introduced us to "Dark and Stormy". This is a great drink made with Ginger Beer and Dark Seal Rum.......unbelievable. Remember, all ginger beer is not alike!

Here is a picture of George and Jim aboard Jim's boat Sam Jam (30 foot Coronado). We are going through a Dismal Swamp Lock.

The lock raises the boat 8 feet and when the gates open you continue on to the next lock where you are lowered 8 feet. Just think, these locks have been around since 1805.

Beautiful scenery was everywhere. Glassy water, tall trees and narrow waterways could almost make you feel disoriented

We are counting the days until we are back on board.

Happy Holidays From the Captain and the the first mate.

San Diego

We arrived home Friday 11/17 just in time to celebrate Meghan's birthday. She is 26 this year...how did that happen? Seems like she was born not too long ago.

We will be heading back to Jacksonville on December 18th. Christmas will be in St. Augustine with Meghan and Dana.

Sue and Tony Farrow will join us for a few days of sailing and fun after January 1.

Last but not least, the big news is.....Steve retired!!!! He said goodby to Encinitas Fire Department after 32 years of service. It was a tough move but he did it gracefully with only a few tears. Now comes the next chapter as a full time sailor. Ahoy!

Jekyll Island

We made it to Jekyll Island today (Sunday). The Island is beautiful. We borrowed bikes from the Marina and drove around the entire Island (almost). We will not be able to walk tomorrow but being on the water, walking is not much of a necessity.

We are getting close to Jacksonville and hope to arrive there on Monday or Tuesday. We will leave the boat there and return to San Diego on 11/17. We look forward to having Thanksgiving with our friends and family.

Christmas this year will be on our boat in St. Augustine, Florida. Meghan and Dana will join us for a little sailing and alot of sightseeing.

Sailing is still great but the weather needs to get a bit warmer. BRRRRRR!

Heading South

Here are a few pictures of our neighbors in the Thunderbolt Marina/Boat Yard. There are more boats this size in the water around us. Fine Line looks small even with her main sail up.

Our engines have been serviced and have received a blue ribbon for cleanliness. Way to go Captain Clean. We are heading south tomorrow (Friday). We hope to make Jekyll Island this weekend.

Savannah Georgia

Sunday afternoon we sailed out of Cape Fear and took a heading of 210 degrees(southwest). It was cold but by evening we had found the Gulf Stream and the 84 degree water. It was balmy and wonderful with a full moon shining down on us. We sailed all night, each of us taking a two hour watch. Our third crew member, Mr. auto pilot, did most of the work but we kept an eye out for pirates. Ha Ha

4 am we changed course and set our heading for Southern Georgia. By 8am the weather changed with increased winds and seas. The captain and crew felt a bit green around the gills but managed to choke down some oatmeal. The chop was 8-10 feet and the winds were blowing 25 knots. We reefed our main sail and continued on toward Georgia. Fine Line is a great surfing catamaran. We logged our top speed on the down side of a wave at 20.4 knots. We were consistently reaching 14-15 knots.

We were happy to finally reach the channel markers late in the afternoon. We cautiously motored to our destination in Thunderbolt GA. We are currently docked in a mega yacht boat yard with some amazing privately owned yachts: two sailing vessels over 160 feet and power yachts pushing 200 feet.

We plan to head south again soon and will be heading for Jekyll Island and then on to Jacksonville FL.

So far so good. We really like this sailing life. Steve is an incredible captain. He has navigated us safely from Virgina and never looses his cool. We have found ourselves in a few pickles but he always lands us safely at our destination. Anne has survived her first overnight sail and continues to perfect her crew duties. We look forward to seeing you onboard. Over and out.

Cape Fear North Carolina

We are close to South Carolina finally. It has been a long trek thru North Carolina, beautiful but cold. We are really hoping for some warm weather soon. Wearing five layers hampers mobility. We have decided to head out of the ICW at Cape Fear. There is alot of boats heading south and the narrow waterways are crowded. There are also many low bridges that only open on the hour or half hour. Yesterday we got stuck for nearly two hours due to a fire on one of the barrier islands. The rule is if the fire department goes to the island the bridge cannot open until the fire department comes back to the mainland.

Cape Fear is a large shipping channel and despite it's name is a good place to enter the Atlantic Ocean. From there we will sail south past South Carolina to Jekyll Island in Georgia. We will spend a few days recovering and warming up before we head for Jacksonville Florida. Over and out.

Oriental North Carolina

We are still in North Carolina. We are traveling about 50 miles per day so it takes awhile to get anywhere. Monday night we were in Elizabeth City. This is the friendliest place you could imaging. To get into the city you must request the city bridge be opened. When it opens an alarm sounds, very similar to a volunteer fire department alarm. It makes you feel special! We were greeted at the city docks by a welcome group that helped us tie up and then invited us to attend the local "boating happy hour". It was hard to leave this place the next morning. But we did.

We traveled down the Pasquotank River into the Albemarle Sound. From there we entered the Alligator River (did not see any gators). We found a beautiful cove to anchor for the night. The next morning we headed thru another waterway into the Pungo River and then into the Pamlico Sound. This is low country and there are lots of shrimp boats around. Makes you think of Forest Gump. We motored thru the Goose River and found a great place to anchor in a maze of small rivers and lots of mosquitos. We did not realize the situation until we had about 1000 mosquitos in the boat. We spent the evening slapping them around. The good news was our TV reception was outstanding and we watched "Lost".

Thursday morning we headed down the Neuse River and into Oriental. The weather is getting chilly and we decided to treat ourselves at a marina. We borrowed two bikes and headed for town. It is a very small town with very friendly people and good shrimp. We asked the marina if we could borrow a bike lock and they said "why"????

The waterways are beautiful and enormous. We are in awe of the beauty every day. Over and out.

North Carolina

We are making progress. Yesterday we left the marina and found the bay with 25 knot winds, gusting to 40. The seas were like a washing machine and we were small fish. The boat loved it and so did the captain. The crew did not get sick so everyone was happy. The two boats that followed us across the bay got hammered and there were great stories about the crossing over drinks later that night. We have a companion boat from Annapolis, SamJam with George and Jim on board.

Today we left the bay and headed down the ICW A.KA. The Dismal Swamp. Some refer to it as the "ditch". It is about 50-75 feet wide and surrounded by trees turning colors. It is beyond words for beautiful. The weather is great today and we are taking lots of pictures. We have to go thru two locks "not like Panama" but same principle to get thru the "ditch". We found the North Carolina Vistors Center very friendly and they have internet. Over and Out.

Time To Go

It has been two days of gale force winds and cold, rainy weather. Today the wind is still blowing but the forecast promises for a quiet night and nice days to follow. We are taking off and very excited.

We have made some really nice friends here in Norfolk and saying "goodby" is going to be one of the hardest things we will do as we leave a port. Over and Out.

Virginia

We arrived in Virginia on Tuesday. It was brutally cold for two sissy Californian's. We were so excited to see the boat but as we got close the 1000 seagulls cackled and laughed at us. Yep, our boat was their toilet. We spent hours cleaning up the dock so we could get on the boat and then hours cleaning the boat so we could get inside and turn on the heater.

Enough whining. We slept great after that workout. We had a navy diver come clean our boat on Wed. He was hot! Anne was too mesmerized to take his picture. Sorry! Today is Thursday and we decided to take a break and go shopping for more stuff. Seems like we have bought so much stuff already but we keep needing more things.

Our plan is to leave the dock on Saturday. The weather might warm up a bit but then it might rain.....oh well. We are heading down the ICW to North Carolina. It will take 2-3 days to get there but we are not in a rush. Over and out for now!

Waiting in Carlsbad

We are still in Carlsbad, finishing up our jobs, bills, yard, house, etc. The details are never ending. I know we are leaving because we bought airline tickets and they are non-refundable. October 23 we are flying to VA via Jet Blue. We had cheap seats thanks to lost luggage last year.

Our plan is to provision and leave the dock by October 27-28. The weather will determine if we go via the Intracoastal Waterway route or out the Chesapeake to the Atlantic and then south.



Our first stop will be Oriental NC. Oriental has a good boat yard and we have a couple of things we need to take care of. I hope to eat alot of shrimp while we are there.



Here are some pictures of our new home

This last photo is the guest room.