 |
YeeeHA! The work is mostly done and we're on our way down
the coast. As it turns out, the new owners of Felix (my last boat,
there's a link to it and our cruise on my Links
Page) called me before we left and asked if they could accompany us down
the East coast and to the Bahamas. "The more the merrier!"
No problem.
So we left North
Carolina in company with Felix a little over a week ago
with record lows
temps hitting the whole country at just about the same time.
Fortunately, both Fat Chance and Felix have enclosed heated pilothouses
so it hasn't been unbearable. I feel for the sailors that I've
seen along the way, bundled up in their open cockpits, with wind chills
making the cold 20 to 40 degree temperatures seem WAY colder. Not alot of fun for even the diehards amongst us.
Other than the cold, we haven't had anything to complain about. Fat Chance has been pretty comfy, although, I really would have liked a few more months to do all of the work preparing her to go cruising in comfort and safety. I have just under 1500 hours invested in the upgrades, and that was done in the last 5 months. To say that I was getting pretty burned out would be an BIG understatement. This last week, just spending quality time with Deb, piloting the boat and reading New York Times bestsellers, has done an enormous amount towards straightening out my attitude and bringing back my sense of humor.
We stopped in Carolina
Beach on New Years Eve and had dinner out with our friends on Felix.
We even stopped by the very funky Fat Pelican Lounge that we fell in
love with last year as we were heading south. In Charleston we
visited our good friend and chef (take that chef!), Captain Ron.
Besides Ron being a fun person to spend time with, we enjoy the new and
old recipes that he tries out on us, as well as his line of "Butt Kickin"
spices. Way fun, and thanks for all Ron! We'll see you
in the spring.
Sometime during the
course of this week, we were at a marina and
were able to experience
Carolina CSI! I have to be vague here because... well... because
America is full of ambulance chasing lawyers (I was going to say scum
sucking *#@-x!'s, but because I want to keep this blog happy and
friendly I won't...). Anyway, the story involves a person who
apparently got together with a psycho friend from the past on Facebook.
Well, let's just say their lives will probably never be the same.
Careful, you Facebookers out there! I can't say any more, but...
man! (This paragraph is pure fiction and any resemblance to any
event that ever happened are purely coincidental. Every statement
above is the opinion and pure fictional manufacturing of the author.
There is no warrantee or blah blah blah....)
We've been watching the
weather ever since we left and finally got a slight break in the
wind/wave forecast on Wednesday. The intracoastal Waterway is
nice, especially if
you've never done it, but with these freezing temps,
we want to make tracks for warmer climes. We
headed out of the South Edisto River into the Atlantic. The
forecast was for 5-10 knots of wind and 3 foot seas. We got that
for the afternoon, but as usual, as soon as it started getting dark, and
20+ miles off shore, the wind increased into the mid 20's and on the
beam. Cold and rolly, we endured the unpredicted wind and waves
till after midnight. Then things calmed back to 5-10 knots.
We had a beautiful red sunset and a even more spectacular red sunrise.
Offshore we made St. Augustine in about 24 hours. Now, time
to relax for a day or two in this wonderful city.
All of the log pictures can be seen by clicking Slideshow
Enjoy!