Charleston to Stuart, FL

We’re getting closer to home, one passage at a time, one storm at a time!

While we love Charleston, we'd spent a rainy week there and were itching to move on. I’d been glued to the weather and there were early warnings of a possible tropical disturbance developing in the Gulf later in the week. So we decided we should leave and get further south even if the conditions were a bit bumpy. And they were! We left Monday morning and pushed through beamy/head seas – conditions which make Blossom hobby horse. Conditions varied over the 52-hour passage as we crept along the coast with it calming down significantly the last 8 hours or so. No one got sick though and having 8 hours to rest between shifts was a God-send. I even managed to take a shower and only bruised one side of my body 😉

A Brown Boobie took a rest on our bow the first evening. He spent an hour grooming his feathers and I think he was planning on spending the night. Unfortunately, we turned a bit east and it got too bumpy for him to hold on.

Very pretty bird

When we left, we weren’t really sure where we’d be stopping, just that we wanted to make it to Cape Canaveral or further south.  We decided to stop in Stuart though we probably could have gone another half day to Ft Lauderdale. Part of the reason we stopped in Stuart is that we’re eyeing Lake Okeechobee. It’s possible to cut through the state through the lake if it’s high enough. That would cut our trip short by about 250 miles and we wouldn’t need to wait for the seas to calm down after the storm… It looks like we might have made the right decision – the lake has been coming up every day and central Florida is looking at getting 6-10 inches of rain over the long weekend. (Yikes!)

Sunset Bay Marina had a slip available for us which was great – I was worried it would be hard to get a slip over the holiday weekend. I think we got lucky as the marina is pretty darn full! It’s weird being back in Stuart – we lived here for 7 months back in 2014 while commissioning Blossom and haven’t been back since. We ended up arriving at dead low tide and were warned off passing through the crossroads area of the ICW. So we dropped anchor and waited for the tide to come in. After chatting with Sea Tow and a couple boats passing by we decided to drop Petal and do some sounding.

Martin and Jim checking depths

By now it was mid-tide rising and the guys saw plenty of water. We passed through with 1.5 under the keel at it’s shallowest. Boating in Florida is an exercise is navigating shallow water!

Going through the Roosevelt Bridge – just ahead of some wet weather!

We’ve never stayed at Sunset Bay though we’ve eaten at the restaurant there several times. It’s a pretty marina and it’s just a 5 minute walk into the cute downtown area from there. We pulled in to a dock filled with Nordhavns and Krogans and bumped into our water maker technician and later, the commissioning manager who commissioned Blossom.

As usual, we're enjoying one of our favorite aspects of cruising - the community! We passed by a Nordy on our way down here from the west coast of Florida and had a great chat on the radio. Then we met an awesome couple on another Nordy here at Sunset and found we had a number of cruising friends in common... It's such a small community of friendly, interesting people!

We’re happy to be here and able to ride out the weekend in comfort. The storm has in fact developed into a subtropical storm and is currently the first named storm of the season - Alberto. Hopefully it won’t strengthen beyond a Tropical Storm before it hits landfall on the northern Gulf coast. With crazy rainfall expected throughout Florida, we’re assuming the lake will be nice and deep by early next week when we hope to cross.

Boat Business:

• Our 9k gen died on the passage down. Martin found that a breaker had failed. The same thing happened in 2014 so we had a spare.
• Jim replaced the filters in the air handlers and sneezing seems to have lessoned on board. I’m still finding yellow dust in nooks and crannies…

Tropical Storm Colin and a visit to Savannah

Moon over Charleston

Storm cloud

Blossom on the dock with the big girls

Well our first few days back in the states were eventful! We docked at the City Marina Friday afternoon during slack tide. We’re the penultimate boat on the outside of the Megadock, it must be close to a .5 mile walk to land from here! Our first order of business was to check back into the country. We were on our way to the marina office and then to Customs and Immigrations when we learned that Customs and Immigration actually come to your boat here, you don’t go to them. Well that was very cool because it was really hot and we much preferred clearing in on our own boat. Two officers arrived within an hour and we were done in about 10 minutes. Nice!

SNOB

We planned to stay in on Saturday night but instead ended up eating out at a fabulous restaurant, SNOB (Slightly North Of Broad). A friend recommended that we check out SNOB while in Charleston. I looked on Open Table but they had no reasonable time slots open for a couple of weeks. Late Saturday afternoon I saw the tab still open on my computer and hit “refresh” for the heck of it. Surprise! A 7:15 slot was open. OMG, what a meal! Thank you sooo much, Gail!

Fountainhead -  250+ feet!! She left the other day

On Sunday we visited with Kayleigh, my first cousin once removed. (Yes, I had to look that up – child of a first cousin is…? J) We had a wonderful evening together and a great dinner at Coast Bar & Grill which is located in an alley where you could believe you’re in France with cobblestone streets and ivy covered brick buildings.

Tom Ka Gai, I’m getting my cooking groove back on

By Monday we were in “storm” mode as Tropical Storm Colin started its ascent through the Gulf, to Florida and on to SC. We were pulling in our canvas and cushions when a captain from a large boat on the dock approached. He was quite adamant that we should turn our boat around to face west, implying improbable predictions of our swim step getting crushed off the boat, waves topping our boat deck and more. He planted himself on the dock and wouldn’t let it go. Long story but we finally turned around, if for no other reason than to make him go away (which he promptly did once we had redocked). Then we settled in for the storm which ultimately, was a lot of rain and winds topping at 30ish knots. It wasn’t even enough to wake us up. (Captain gloom and doom came by the next morning with a beer for our trouble J)

Shane & Martin

Sunset in Charleston (photo credit to Shane)

Over the first few days we also solidified our plans for the next 2 weeks or so and decided to stay in Charleston. The weather was looking good and this gave us the time to visit with my Mom. She came down on Wednesday and we enjoyed dinner with Kayleigh and her beau, Shane. It was a fabulous dinner (Kayleigh makes some A-mazing lasagna) and we really enjoyed getting to know Shane.

Sunset in Savannah

2 photos because I love them both

On Thursday, me, Martin and my Mom headed south to Savannah. We’ve all wanted to visit Savannah for years but have never made it down there. What a beautiful city! We stayed in the oldest hotel in the city, The Marshall House. I’m lame and didn’t take a picture, so here’s a stock photo.

The Marshall House

The lobby - wine, cheese and historian in the evening!

Our creepy hallway

AH! What was that??

It’s a gorgeous hotel that served as a hospital during the “war between the states” and is said to be very haunted (a major theme of Savannah – hauntings) We didn’t see any ghosts but we did thoroughly enjoy our stay!

We packed a ton into 3, very hot days. We walked all over the city and did several tours including a trolley tour, a walking ghost tour and a ghost trolley tour J and a narrated cruise on the Savannah River Queen. We visited the Owens-Thomas House, Davenport House Museum, Mercer Williams Museum House (made famous by the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil), and the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum.

One of the beautiful squares

Fountain at Forsyth Park

Mercer Williams House

Scott, our walking ghost tour host, those eyes!

The cemetery is beautiful

Savannah River Queen

Hot afternoon on the river

Savannah River Front

The Waving Girl of Savannah, Florence Martus

Dredging the river, cruise ships will come here one day

Tug central

Taking fire from Old Fort Jackson!

What’s that? A Nordy in Savannah! (there were two 55s but I didn’t snap the pic quickly enough)

And talk about food! We ate lunch at Zunzi’s Take Out and Moon River Brewery (haunted), dinner at Vic’s and the historic The Olde Pink House (also haunted so they say) and drinks on the rooftop of The Bohemian (twice!). And of course, we had ice cream from Leopold’s (home of the original Tutti Fruitti).

Free ice pops and stickers that say “Shit Yeah” while waiting in line at Zunzi’s

We all had the Conquistador sandwich, voted “best sandwich in the south” and “one of the best 3 sandwiches in America” by the Travel Channel. Yup, it really was that good!

Moon River Brewery. The upper floors aren’t used – too many bad things happen up there (!)

They warn you…

But the beer is very good

This is a rather large freighter coming down the river just outside Vic’s

The Olde Pink House

Leopold’s Ice Cream

That’s the normal line at Leopald’s. Yes, we waited. Yes, it was worth it.

So yeah, we basically ate and walked our way through Savannah! It’s a stunningly beautiful city with Spanish moss dripping from old Live Oaks, blooming magnolia trees, steeped in history (though much of it tragic) and a true feeling of southern hospitality.

Mom enjoying the view from the fly bridge

We returned to Blossom yesterday. We had a fabulous grilled dinner on the boat and met new neighbors across the dock later that evening. TC and Brenda invited us over to tour their truly phenomenal boat, one of the most amazing trawlers I’ve ever had the joy to visit. She's a custom build out of Brazil, perfectly planned out to most minute detail.

We were sad to say goodbye to Mom today, as she headed back to Myrtle Beach. Martin and I are settling in again before our next adventure which we’ll write about next week!

Boat Business: We haven't been on Blossom for a few days but Martin has a list. More on BB the next blog...

************************

This is our blog about cruising. I rarely post about current events, and don't consider it an appropriate venue for political commentary. However, it feels disingenuous to ignore the tragedy that has occurred in Orlando. Our hearts break for the senseless loss of life and for those many people who have lost their precious loved ones. Wishing for so much more love and so much less hate and violence.

Hauling Blossom Ahead of the Storm

Blossom docked at River Forest

It’s hard to believe that we’re wrapping up our first season aboard. We certainly chose the right place to leave our floating home. The facility at River Forest is fantastic! We’ve been impressed with everything about it here - the docks, buildings and grounds are immaculate and well kept. The staff are incredible – experts at what they do, efficient and friendly.  The facility has two building to house boats, one is air conditioned, as well as a concrete yard with tie downs. We’re too tall for the buildings so we’re outside.

River Forest

We shared the basin this week with two other boats. I wish we could have spent more time with them but we were so busy and the boat was in such a state that we didn’t have much time for being social. Kathy & Terry and their pup Baylee were passing through, having some work done. Kathy gave us the low down on the marina and warned us about Arthur (see below). I hope we meet up with them again under more relaxed circumstances! The other boater, JJ, was also getting work done and he left once his boat was hauled for the storm.

The channel leading into River Forest (the dot in the middle is an alligator)

The first thing we realized is that River Forest is really far away from everything! We rented a car from the nearest rental in Lehigh, a 45 minute drive away. It was just as well as we didn’t have time for anything but working on the boat. The facility is just west of Lake Okeechobee. It’s 2 locks in from Ft. Myers so there’s no storm surge and it’s fresh water, so there’s little bottom growth to worry about. And there isn’t much around it so that means less debris in high winds. It’s a perfect place to store a boat during hurricane season. They even tie the boats down to the concrete when there’s an impending storm. The only downside is that it’s hotter than Hades, and humid, until autumn. So those are the factors to deal with when you’re shutting up the boat. There’s a bit of wildlife (other than insects) here as well – an alligator came calling every day into the basin. Martin named him Arthur.

Can you find Arthur?

Someone must have fed him at one point because he came around dinner time every day, except the day we cooked bacon for breakfast - he made an early appearance that day :) (We didn’t feed him - we feel that that only endangers wildlife – but I think he could smell what was cooking!)

A close up shot

We had hoped to have a solid week to prep Blossom for her 4 month rest on land. The weather, however, put a bit of a hitch in that plan. Erika was an erratic, rather fickle tropical storm that seemed to be heading right for us, so the manager at River Forest had to make a call – hurricane mode or not? And he had to do it in time to get all the boats that would be coming in hauled out and prepped. So on Wednesday he made the prudent decision and the yard went into double time. Of course, as we now know, the storm would dissipate over Cuba before reaching us, but we’re happy that it all went down the way it did. The irony was not lost on us that we rushed down to southern Florida to get to our hurricane hole and ran straight into the path of the first one to come close to Florida in 10 years!

Rather than haul out on Monday, we had to haul on Friday. I can honestly say that Martin and I have never worked so hard on Blossom as we did those 6 days.  We’ve been living away from our CA home for 19 months and aboard for 12. So this was the equivalent of moving away from home (again). We took the opportunity to thoroughly clean and declutter her. I was brutal – anything not used went: into the garbage, into a give-away pile or into a box to be shipped to CA.  This will probably be the most “difficult” storage experience simply because we’d never done it before, were learning as we went along, were rushed, and we’d been aboard for a year. In the future, we’ll know what we’re doing and will only have 6 months of living aboard to clean up after.

We wanted to finish the work while we were in the water so we’d have air conditioning, could use the bathrooms and wouldn’t have to move off the boat so soon. With the expedited schedule there was no way to do it in time. We were lucky enough to find a local woman who routinely works with boats at the facility. April was a God-send! She knew how to put everything up (contributing to my list) and she spent a full day with us on Friday cleaning and prepping, both before and after the haul out. We wouldn't have finished before Sunday (the guesstimated "arrival" date of what remained of Erika) without her. She’s going to check on the boat periodically while we’re away as well. And she works with a local charity so she could take our food and other items and make sure everything went to a very good cause.

By the time the daily torrential afternoon rainstorm hit on Saturday we had finished 98% of our work. We were just in time as the remnants of Erika are supposed to pass through this afternoon (Sunday). We expect no more than a big rain storm but it’ll be nice to be relaxing in the hotel knowing that the work is all but done.

 Steering into the “well” (Matt & Martin)

Entering the well to get hauled. Martin and April on the bow. The guy in the blue shirt, Ben, is driving the lift. Pretty cool eh?

Fitting the sling. This is serious business and John's an expert

Blossom weighed in at 76 tons with 1000 gallons of diesel and a bit of water. She's a heavy boat.

On Thursday we moved into a hotel in east Ft. Myers. It’s a 50 minute drive but it’s a decent hotel and there are places to eat nearby. One day on our way in we saw a huge turtle walking very, very slowly across the road. There was a fair amount of traffic so we stopped and I moved him to the ditch. Poor guy was terrified. Who knew turtles could hiss?

Relocating the big guy

We’ll go back to the yard Monday or Tuesday to finish up and then head to Ft. Lauderdale. We’ll visit with friends Tuesday and then we fly back to CA on Wednesday morning. Wow!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a terrible tendency to over think things, to death. And I love lists. So imagine how I went to town on this task! My “Storage Protocol” is still in progress and currently lists 85 tasks. All but 6 have been completed. I’m sure that many were not necessary for a 4 month break (I think that Blossom could easily rest on the hard for years the way we’ve left her!)  But we’ll see when come back in January how it all worked out and can determine if we should tweak the protocol. (Yes, I was a project manager in another life.) 

I’ll post at least one more blog entry before the end of this season. I need to get a photo of Blossom on blocks and tied down. I’ll put our latest draft of the storage protocol up as well.

Boat Business: (Storage prep will be the next blog)

• On Tuesday we met with a local contractor to discuss getting cockpit shades made. We have some now but they don’t work well. We took a chance using suction cups rather than snaps on all our window covers and the cockpit shades. They’ve worked wonderfully for the windows but not for the cockpit where there’s too much surface area and the wind blows them off. Next year we’ll have shades that slide along a track and tie down on the bottom. They’re very necessary at anchor in the Bahamas when you have your back to the afternoon and setting sun.
• We're going to have the yard place markers under the rub rail to indicate where the slings should be placed for future haul outs. Misplacing the slings can be a disaster...

Quilt Business:

I thought I’d also post a picture of what I’ve been working on this spring/summer. I keep talking about “my quilting” but I couldn’t show what I was doing because they were gifts. Now they’re finished and delivered!  My cousin and his wife had two gorgeous twin girls born this May. So I made them two baby quilts. (With some help, my Mom helped me piece the fish quilt when I had vertigo.) I'm really pleased with how they turned out. 

Blooms and Bugs applique quilt front

B&B back

Fishy Business front

Fishy Business back