Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

To all our faithful readers.

Merry dolphin Christmas

Rudolph the Red Nosed Dolphin!: http://youtu.be/TJ1sQiTnVi8

Heading South....Fast.

Staying in Annapolis for the Sailboat show seems to get us to north Florida in time for Thanksgiving. Brrrrr! Northern Florida is cold in late November. We have sat huddled around our propane oven as our turkey cooks for too many years! This year we high-tailed it to southern Florida as quickly as we could. We moved almost every day and did a mix of offshore and ICW depending on the area and the weather. For the most part the weather was warm although we had to sit and wait for some strong winds to pass. We traveled from Annapolis to Stuart, Florida in less than 3 weeks. Below are some of the highlights.



Sunrise as we had Charleston, NC in sight after our offshore run from Beaufort, NC. (Pronounced "bowfort")




One of the many beautiful anchorages. This is off Bull Spit just north of Beaufort, SC. (Pronounced "byoofort")




We headed out Port Royal Sound near Hilton Head to overnight to Fernandina Beach, Florida. The Stingrays where leaping left and right. One leapt right next to us. This photo is courtesy of Google Images.





Love that we are seeing pelicans and dolphins on a regular basis again.






These White Pelicans are heading south too.




Heading out of Fernandina Beach in the twisting, narrow and sometimes shallow ICW. This Tow and Barge passed us and just plowed through the shallows.




When you get to an intersection on the ICW and there are no traffic lights, who has the right of way? This big, honking freighter does!




Titusville, Florida is known for a number of good things. You are more likely to see manatees here than anywhere, it is very close to the Kennedy Space Center and we are likely to catch up with our friends Ben and Jane as they prepare Old Rosie to head south.


Manatee getting a drink




Beautiful sunrise leaving Titusville with the space center in the distance.




We made it safe and sound. We are in Stuart, Florida on a mooring. Our neighbor took this picture of Freedom the night of the full moon. Thanks Tom!

Not So Dismal

Heading south from Norfolk, VA to the Albemarle Sound of NC can be accomplished two ways on the ICW (intracoastal waterway). In the past we have taken the Virginia cut. This is a straight forward route with just one small lock that raises you less than a foot. It is longer in distance but shorter in time. The Dismal Swamp Canal is the other option. It was constructed in the 1790s. George Washington was a staunch supporter and investor of this hand dug canal. We decided to take the swamp this time to enjoy the scenery and history.


Here we are approaching a lock. The lock tenders also have to operate the lift bridge for you.




The canal, we were told, has a minimum of 7 foot depth down the middle. This was true except for some of those logs laying on the bottom. We managed to thump into a few of them.

You can see some logs along the lush shoreline.




We even saw a little bit of fall color.




The trees would overhang the canal in areas. We had to take care not to clip them with our mast.




The canal is very narrow, sufficient for the 1800s but a little tight for modern day boats.







In most areas there is no room to pass other boats so you follow the same ones into the locks and your speed is set by the slowest boat in front of you.





The slow speed was no problem for us but the power boat behind us was not very happy.




The ICW is known for its tannin stained water that stains the hull of your vessel. The Dismal Swamp has the darkest water we've seen.....coffee?




We really enjoyed this picturesque route. Will we do it again next year? Stay tuned.

Beautiful Morn, Dismal Eve

Such a beautiful morning today, we headed out of Fishing Bay near Deltaville, VA before the sun rose.





We had a spirited sail down the Chesapeake with 15 - 20 knot winds on a close reach with a reefed main and headsail. We sailed at a speed of 8.5 knots for quite some time. Our average speed for the day was closer to 7 knots. That's flying for us!



We ended our day tied to a free dock at the entrance to the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Not Much

Have not blogged recently. Frankly, not much new has been happening. Same old, working on the boat and attending and working at the US Sailboat show in Annapolis, Maryland.


We did get a new anchor...it was shipped to the marina office 4 blocks away. Ed made a "trailor" out of our hand cart and brought it back to the boat,




Looks good, doesn't it?





I had a number of sewing projects....this one I am pretty proud of. I replaced the cover for our Lifesling. I used heavy duty vinyl and cut out the old covers' instructions for use and sewed it to the new.




We had a very successful boat show. Ed and I worked 4 of the 5 days of the show. We are now beating feet south. Hopefully we'll have lots of pics of warm, tropical locations soon.

Takes all kinds

We see a lot of different types of boats in our travels. At first, we could not figure out what this was.





As it came past us we could tell it was another cool toy the Navy boys get to play with...





After it passed...holy crap, a 15' wake! You cant tell from the pic but the wake was HUGE. This puppy can do 35 knots. Hard to imagine the fuel flow used in displacing that much water. I have never seen a wake anywhere near this big.




I hope they carry surf boards .

Ed

September 12th

Three years ago we could have started our cruising life on an infamous day. We choose to leave Michigan the day after. Yes, today is the third anniversary of our cruising life!


Here are pictures from our day today.

Take a Hike

Here on Mt. Desert Island is Acadia National Park. What a beautiful place. We spent weeks, most of it anchored in Somes Harbor, exploring the island and the park. The great thing for cruisers is the free bus system that takes you almost anywhere you want to go . We spent some time in the cities, Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Northeast Harbor and Bass Harbor.

The view of S/V Freedom at anchor from the bus stop




Southwest Harbor




The Bass Harbor lighthouse





This was a great place to run some errands. Here is Ed getting our propane tank refilled.





The true draw of this area are the incredible hiking trails. They can be fairly easy like this one.






Or more difficult like this





The views are well worth the hike








The anchorage had its draw as well.


This rainstorm never reached us. It ended over the mountains but gave us this great rainbow.




This seal did a little balancing act on top of a rock for us.




This is a wonderful place and we look forward to coming back here again some day.

More Foraging

We spent some time hiking the trails of Frenchboro, Long Island. I am always looking for blueberries here in Maine. I saw blueberry bushes everywhere on these trails but little to no berries on them. Finally, on the way back, along the roadside almost in town Chris spotted them; jackpot! Wild blueberries!

I picked a few...

The next morning...

YUM!!! Wild Blueberry pancakes.

Trapped

We anchored in beautiful Somes Harbor, enjoying the surrounding Acadia National Park.




A storm rolled in with predicted 15-20 knot winds. It turned into 20-30 knot winds with gusts to 40 knots! It seems the storms always come at night. 3 boats dragged anchor. We stayed up all night on anchor watch, worried about the boats nearby dragging into us. As daylight broke we discovered that a lobster pot was blown into our anchor chain and was wrapped around it. We've been doing a great job dodging them and keeping them out of our propeller. This one seemed to take it personally and came to find us. Ed had to go out in the dinghy and unravel the tangle of pot warps from our chain. It was an old, unattended pot encrusted with mussels.




Ed hauled the trap to the surface to make sure it was clear of our chain and anchor.




With help from a neighbor the trap was dragged clear of all the anchored boats.