Virgin – Olina

A Door 2 Fathoms Down

We left our slip in Solomons Island and the captain forgot to close the boarding gate door. We pulled up to the pumpout dock and the dockhand asked me to pull a bit more forward so the pumpout hose would reach and we heard a metal noise? The boarding gates on Simple Life open outward (very strange and a bit dangerous if you lean against an unlocked door) and when open they stick out further than the rubrail. The door caught on the fixed dock pilings and the sound was it being removed from the boat.

What to do? We are tied up at the dock and our door is 2 fathoms below us. It’s muddy brown Maryland water. Now… I love being “on the water” but I don’t like being “in the water”. Especially when the water is 57 degrees! Hmmm. Let’s call for an expert.

Diver Jeff Myers entering the cold murky water under the dock

It made me nervous just to watch Jeff our diver jump into that water. When he entered the water he took quite a few loud deep breaths. It looked cold to me. Jeff disappeared for what seemed like 5-10 minutes as I watched his bubbles appearing on the surface up & down the dock. I stood there holding the line he had attached to the dock and himself. I finally gave a tug on the line (cuz I think I saw that in a movie once) and he came up empty-handed and cold. He agreed to try another spot closer to the stern of the boat and he was down another 5 minutes… He surfaced and smiled a frozen smile. He had me pull the rope and the door came to the surface. Jeff had felt with his hands in zero visibility around the bottom until he felt the metal door and rapped his dive rope around it several times. We had already turned the heat on inside MV Simple Life so it was 80 degrees inside. Teresa handed Jeff a steaming hot coffee and a towel. Judging by how he stood in the path of the heat with both hands clenching the coffee cup under his chin… I’d say he appreciated it.

We spent the end of the day chatting with Jeff and decided to stay another night at the marina.

The door was unharmed. I spent the night pounding the aluminum hinges back into shape before reattaching the door which did not even have a scratch on it. (smile)

There is a great Italian restaurant at the marina called La Vela Italian Restaurant.

The next morning we had a great breakfast and set out for Gwynn Island just south of Solomons Island, MD.

I love the lines of a Chesapeake Deadrise

We anchored just off Gwynn Island and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

The next morning we set out for Norfolk, VA. As we passed the Norfolk Naval Yard we snapped a few photos.

We anchored at Hospital Point right next to Tidewater Marina.

We snapped a few photos while there.

In the AM we pulled out and circled ICW Mile Marker 0 which is actually this red buoy #36

The next morning we weighed anchor and pushed southward through the Great Bridge Lock.

Soon we docked at AYB (Atlantic Yacht Basin) in Chesapeake, VA and noticed the 80′ Northern trawler that had passed us while we were anchored was docked near to us. We met the owners briefly and discussed some boaters that we knew in common.

iiwii is pronounced E-WE and stands for “It Is What It Is”

We were excited to be docked because we had just enough time to get cleaned up and go to dinner with our boater friends who were driving to Chesapeake to have dinner with us at the Butcher’s Son restaurant. Caroline and Ruth are the best friends anyone could ask for. We wished we could have kidnapped them for the rest of our trip.

By the way that local Mosiac Goat IPA from 2 Silos Brewing was spectacular.

It was sad to leave our friends but the next morning we topped of the 1/2 full fuel tanks ($3000 worth of diesel) and set out for Coinjock Marina. When we arrived we saw MV iiwii was already tied up at the marina. We had just enough time to clean up and rush to get the Coinjock Restaurant’s famous 32 ounce prime rib special.

We actually ran into Fred and Sharon of MV iiwii and while waiting for a seat in the restaurant and Fred thought fast enough to tell the hostess that we would dine together as a party of 4 to make things easier. We enjoyed dinner with our new boater friends who entertained us with their boating stories from all over.

In the morning we cast off the lines and set out for Belhaven, NC. We snapped this photo of a nice looking sportfishing boat called MV McLovin which hailed from a port near me in RI.

Soon we were anchored in Belhaven, NC and enjoyed a night binge watching Friends. We are in Season #2 now.

The sunrise was amazing in the morning.

In the morning we weighed anchor and headed for Camp Legeune anchorage in Jacksonville, NC.

We saw the craziest rainbow spot in the sky. Not a whole rainbow but simply a dot in the sky?

We were now fast approaching Camp Lejeune.

It was a long 100NM trip here today cruising at 10kts. We left as the sun was coming up and dropped anchor just as the sun was going down.

As I sit here anchored in Camp Lejeune I am finally getting a blog post out. The five unblogged legs of our journey that got us to this location looked something like this…

Annapolis

We scooted off the Chesapeake City town dock in the AM and made our way south down Chesapeake Bay towards Annapolis. We dodged lots of floating objects along the way most of which turned out to simply be seaweed.

The trip down the Chesapeake was uneventful and looked something like this…

W05L008 to from Chesapeake City, MD to Annapolis, MD

Soon we were dropping anchor in Annapolis’s outer harbor just as the sun was setting.

In the morning we opened all the doors and windows and enjoyed what was a great day on anchor.

In the harbor we watched as Navy ships and passenger ferry boats glided by.

We could not wait to drop the dink and head into downtown Annapolis. I snapped a quick photo of Simple Life as we motored away from her.

Simple Life a Bruce Roberts TY57 Aluminum Hulled Motor Yacht

Annapolis allows free dinghy dockage at the end of “Ego Alley” as it’s called right in the heart of downtown Annapolis.

Once we tied up the dinghy you are right at the Alex Haley Roots statue.

Children Listening to the Story of Roots

We spied a Starbucks and Teresa smiled and took off like a shot to order her favorite espresso drink.

As we wandered around the city we snapped random photos of the sights we saw.

We walked to my Apple Watch declared I had set a record for outdoor activity. I think we need to get off the boat a little more often 😉 Hungry is what we were. We stopped at so many different restaurants to check the menu and finally settled on The Federal House for dinner. My “Hangover Angus Burger” and “The IPA When the Earth Stood Still” from Cult Classic Brewing were both AmaZinG!

We finished up our dinner and raced back to Simple Life to prepare for our good friends Buddy & Renee. There is nothing better than pulling into a distant port and getting to spend time with your cruising friends. Soon Buddy & Renee were tying up their dinghy on our stern and we enjoyed a sunset together.

Sundowner on the Flydeck with Sailing regatta going on in the background

Somehow a bottle of moonshine came out and Buddy said he could make a flamethrower… Teresa and I were thinking… we had never heard of this drink until Buddy lit up the night with his flamethrower.

We got to spend three memorable days enjoying dinner & laughs with Buddy & Renee. We look forward to when we are reunited again…

Cape May and Beyond

Leaving Atlantic City, the predicted forecast was for 4-5′ waves on our stern as we travel south to Cape May. Normally we wait for 2-3′ waves as 4-5 footers can be uncomfortable especially if they are on your beam. However, if we didn’t get out of AC on this particular day… the Atlantic zone between AC and Cape May will have waves in the 7’+ range which is nothing we wanted to travel in. So… Off we went…

The waves heights turned out to be OK and I grabbed a video of our bow wake as we headed out of Atlantic City.

We made good time heading south down the Jersey Shore. We increased speed to 12kts to add more stability to the boat.

Like most trawlers or motor yachts Simple Life has a square (hard chined) hull when you move aft. This is very common as most boats have a sharp V shape under the water at the bow and those steep V hull sides slowly turn horizontal or flat bottomed as you move from the bow to the stern of the boat. This means that the where the sides of the hull meet the bottom of the hull in the aft (rear) of the boat you have a near 90 degree corner.

Have you ever stuck you flattened out hand into the water moving past you while on a boat? If you have, your hand was thrust up and out of the water by the force of the water hitting your hand. If you try pushing your hand deeper into the water it gets pushed back up even harder. As the boat heels to one side or the other… one side of the boat is forced deeper into the water while the other side is lifted out of the water. The faster the oncoming water is hitting the bottom of the boat on the heeled-side the stronger it feels pushed back up, This has the effect of reducing the heeling motion. Likewise the side of the boat that is being lifted out of the water feels less buoyancy force pushing it up by the smaller section of hull still submerged. The forces work to return the boat to level.

If you take your captains class you will use a diagram like this with metacentric heights and righting moments. It’ll be a more formal discussion like the one found here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacentric_height

Some times I just like to watch the prop wash that pops back to the surface after being pushed down by the boat riding over it.

We were approaching the Cape May inlet and we already knew that we would hit the Cape May Canal as it approached maximum ebb current. Not much we could do about that other than throttle up and push through.

We exited the Cape May Canal and made our way up the Delaware Bay. The ride north up Delaware Bay was uneventful and we passed almost no other boat traffic. Soon we were approaching our chosen anchorage in the Cohansey River. We circled for a bit checking depths before we dropped the hook for the night. We were treated to an amazing red sunset.

Our route for Winter 05 – Leg 006 looked something like this.

36 Hour Solo Offshore

4AM and my iPhone alarm is buzzing. I need to weigh anchor and get underway before the 4:38AM start of the Winyah Bay inlet’s flood current. Somehow I lose track of time and don’t get underway till 5AM.

First light won’t occur until 6:24AM.

I weave my way through the other anchored boats quietly without shining my spotlight directly on them. It’s dark but the radar and spotlight are helping me find the daymarks and buoys that line the channel out the inlet and into the Atlantic.

Now at 6:05, 19 minutes before first light, if I look to the east, I can differentiate sky from the sea.

Moments later and First Light has arrived.

First Light on the Atlantic

Now it’s 7AM and at the sun is looking like a giant lightbulb on the eastern horizon.

Friends have found me.

I am amazed that they appear to glide without tail movements for quite some time

As the day goes on the following sea can be felt. As I walk through the salon I can hear the rhythmic sound of my wine glasses rocking back and forth in their upside down holder.

Wine Glasses making squeaking sounds

I open the back door to get a better look at the following sea.

Following Sea is catching me

I spot my first ship around 2PM.

It’s cargo vessel Triton and it will pass less than a mile from me with our current course and speeds.

Though I will not pass any other recreational traffic this far out I do come upon a second, equally as massive container ship on a crossing path.

I decide to spend some time on the bow and video as I go

20NM East of Charleston, SC

The sun has begun to set.

I settle in for the long night. When I go offshore as opposed to running in the ICW or “The Ditch” as it is called, there isn’t much to do. I plan my route and set my course and speed. The autopilot is engaged so no need to hold the helm. I do however need to maintain a constant watch for buoys or passing ships. My chosen route is a rhumb line between Winyah Bay Inlet and St. Augustine Inlet. Rhumb lines are courses navigators use to make it easy on themselves. A rhumb line only requires the captain to steer a constant magnetic bearing. I can hear the geometry nerds shouting… “The shortest route on the surface of a sphere is actually the arc of a great circle!”. On mercator projection charts a rhumb line is a straight line. My rhumb line route takes me about 45NM offshore.

Shoreline Route is the closest, St. Mary’s Inlet route middle and St. Augustine Route is the furthest offshore. Bailout routes in the inlets have been platted as well

Explained another way… If you stare at the picture of “globe Earth” below, keep this in mind. The longitudinal lines come together at the North Pole. If you are sailing either of the two routes drawn below, your compass needle’s would align to the longitude lines. The “rhumb line” route you steer a constant heading according to the compass while the shorter “great circle” route has you starting out at one compass heading and constantly steering more east as you go from left to right.

I don’t anticipate seeing many ships or buoys this far out. My watch duties are reduced to:

Scanning the horizon
Checking radar
Checking my boats position to my route every three minutes or so.

Note: you can see I zoomed way in and make small adjustments to the autopilot to stay close to my route line.

With minimal watch required it’s time to watch movies while at the helm. I preload media onto my iPads so when a cell signal is nowhere to be found… I still have entertainment.

Red Alert!

Tonight’s Sunset is a burning sky.

As the sun sets… the burning sky gives way to a night sky. This is why we boat. This is an addicting drug.

Crescent moon hangs over a horizon of fire

The sun slides beneath the waves. A waxing crescent, hangs above the flames of a burning horizon. I’m sure I’ve seen this surreal painting. An artist’s dream or mine? In a mere hour’s time, the moon follows her partner beneath that distant horizon. The boat surges forward with each wave, piercing the black velvet bedsheet stretched before her. The blackness offers up a gift. The stars are the only things left around. This far out to sea, the glow from land is all but snuffed out. The moment is now. I douse all the lights aboard and run to the bow. My bare feet upon the cold salty deck. The diesel’s growl is but a whisper to the parting ocean that crashes to both sides of me. The deck pitches, yaws and rolls and I am forced to a seated position. Forward facing into a brisk invisible wind. I lay prone. Above me the stars fixed in their galactic positions sway to and fro. It’s an undeniable existential moment. Your presence in this universe comes rushing into your headspace. Why am I here? I am here! I am certain my presence is to be the mirror mother universe uses to gaze upon herself.

CaptMahty

At night when I’m underway laying on the bow my steaming light illuminates the American flags I fly on my VHF antennas.

Sometimes If I want to be seen, I turn on my flybridge lights to better illuminate for passing ships.

As I look down at my iPhone’s moon app. I notice that as the boat is rocking the app developers have coded the moon app’s background to move with the iPhone’s accelerometer. The apps stars appear to sway like the ones above my head.

iPhone Accelerometer

The night was long and dark. The 5’ following sea could occasionally be seen as its white froth breaks and roars past the front of the boat. I cannot keep pace with the following sea so each wave lifts the boat’s stern and eventually I slide down the face of the wave as it slips past me.

When Sunrise comes my weariness subsides and I feel a second-wind.

Friends are here.

They glide through the water with so little effort

Now 3PM, I’m making my way into St. Augustine Inlet. Hurricane Dorian wiped out all the inlet markers so there are no buoys found marking the channel. No worries though as with the incoming waves it’s not hard to spot where the shoals are.

Shoals on the South side of the STA Inlet entrance

As I make my way in the inlet a beautiful Palm Beach motor yacht passes me.

STA Inlet Palm Beach yacht

Once inside the jetty walls I find a sailboat peacefully making way.

I have been told that St. Augustine is a favorite by many a cruiser. Seems every time I arrive here I’m in a hurry to be someplace else. This time is no different. As I pass St. Augustine’s City Marina I view this beautiful yacht resting against the outer dock.

I wonder what the make of this beautiful yacht is?

The Sun is getting low as I make my way south of St. Augustine, FL.

Sun is setting.. better find a place to anchor

My anchorage for the night is Matanzas as it puts me close to where I want to be around noon tomorrow.

Now with the anchor down I can finally relax and close my eyes.

I can finally stop driving the boat and close my eyes

Today’s W04L013 route looked like this.

Atlantic City 4AM

Sleeping In

I purposely got a late departure from the marina in Port Washington because I wanted to catch a fair current. When I went to leave my slip the gale force winds were on my beam. When you are solo you must untie and leave only a front a back looped over the cleat so you can climb aboard and flick the lines off and go. The problem this morning was that after I flicked off the stern line and ran through the boat to get to the bow line I’m sure the boat would be sideways in the slip. I opted to tie the boat with a single line, jump aboard, flick the line of the cleat and try to get out of of my slip before the wind had it’s way with me. Lucky for me the slips are very wide as were the fairways.

Pulling out of Port Washington a sailboat was following me.

Blue-hulled sailboat reminds me of my old Hunter sailboat before I bought my trawler

Port Washington is just around the corner from the east end of the East River.

Port Washington is a great staging location to wait for a fair current

Under Bridges

Throgs Neck Bridge is the first bridge as you enter the E. River. You can see the Bronx – Whitstone bridge behind it. The fair current boosts my speed from 6.5kts to 8.6kts as I zip along under the bridge.

Throgs Neck Bridge East end of the E. River

Passing Traffic

Almost immediately I’m being passed by USCG & NYPD boats as well as other boat traffic. They are everywhere as you navigate the East River.

Dystopia

The NYC skyline can be seen in the distance. On this cold grey day I can help but think it looks like a scene from some dystopian future SciFi flick.

Push Me Along

As I approach the infamous Hell’s Gate where the E. river & Harlem river converge my speed jumps to 11kts.

Right of Way

Soon I had an oncoming boat that was crossing my port bow. They were on a collision course so I sounded my airhorn for a 1 whistle pass. They did not change speed or direction. I blew my horn again and again with no reaction from the oncoming boat. I finally laid on the horn turned to starboard. We exchange some hand waving before the captain got on the VHF calling me a moron. I simply explained that he did not have the right of way. He was on a collision course. He did not respond to my sound signal and left me no choice but to stop. No response.

Staten Island Ferry

As I pass the souther tip of Manhattan I see the ferry terminal and the Staten Island ferry docked.

They never stay docked very long. NYC’s fast pace as passengers rushing off and on and they are underway again passing me.

A Sexy Girl goes Past

As I’m passing the Statue of Liberty I see a radar return for something passing me on my starboard side. She’s a beauty. MV Arriva from England.

Hustle and Bustle of NYC

This is the busy part of NYC harbor and all sorts of traffic is passing me.

USACE (US Army Corp of Engineers)

Maersk Containership entering NYC harbor

The Jersey Shore

As I pass under the Verrazanno Bridge and past Sandy Hook the sun is setting and at first it’s a beautiful yellowish orange.

Yellowish, orange sunset off Sandy Hook

But minutes later it’s very pink

Pink sunset off Sandy Hook

Serenity

My AIS shows a 66′ foot yacht approaching from my stern.

AIS info transmitted between boats digitally over VHF CH#70

hmmm… 33 feet of beam I think as I wait to snap a photo of this boat with the sunset above. MV Serenity VII is a Lagoon 63 – 4 cabin, crewed power catamaran for charter. You can reserve it here for about 30K/week in the Bahamas if you like? I’d guess the crew are bringing the boat south to the Bahamas for the start of the chartering season.

Red Light District

As the sun sets I swap my salon LED lighting from blue over to red to keep my night vision.

The rest of the trip was a long dark ride to Atlantic City. The sea was calm and I was scheduled to arrive around 4AM. This leg of the journey was 16 hours. I had planned to anchor in Brigantine Bay but it was dead low tide when I arrived and every attempt at getting in the narrow entrance channel ended with the bow slowly riding up on a muddy silty shoal. Being as tired as I was, I simply found a place to drop the hook near the Golden Nugget. The anchor was no sooner set and I curled up on the pilothouse berth and was sound asleep. I plan to wake in 2 hours when the sun comes up and as I have another long 100+ NM day.

W04L003

The 113NM third leg of my Winter 2020 journey looked something like this.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step

Just Don’t Be Late

Simple Life was supposed to leave the dock on Saturday, October 17th. Now, two weeks later, it’s Halloween and Preppy and I are out on the bow in the blowing snow trying to wire up a windlass.

It’s Cold!

Our hands are barely working after letting go of the freezing cold anchor chain. We laugh at how ridiculous the situation is.

It’s says it’s 34 degrees and snowing but the raw wind definitely does make it feel like 22 degrees.

Snow! It’s everywhere.

The original departure date was missed but with Preppy aboard we were now ready to depart. Another quick check of the weather and there’s the remnants of a hurricane that are blanketing our area.

Gale Warning

So we give it a couple days and what’s next? A Gale Warning!

The Shanty

With nothing to do but wait we decide to walk to The Shanty for dinner and some IPAs .

Frozen Dock Lines

It’s Halloween morning and Preppy is going home as he has next week’s jobs to prepare for. Preppy had agreed to make the trip over to the fuel dock in the morning before we parted ways. The only challenge now was getting off the dock?

Me attempting to thaw my dock lines

Sometimes I don’t think… I just do. So when Preppy said the dock lines are frozen solid on the cleat, I just grabbed the torch which was right next to me and started heating them up. It was not until Preppy said … Umm.. why don’t we just pour some hot water over them? Duh? Yes, that did the trick!

With the dock lines finally freed we made our way out of the slip and over to the fuel dock.

At the fuel dock were Peter & Leslie of MV Leap of Faith. They were attempting to use the pumpout hose but it was frozen and would not operate. MV Leap of Faith is also heading south for the winter. They travel faster than I do so we’ll stay in touch as we go through text & calls.

I really like leaving with full water tanks and an empty blackwater tank, especially when it’s cold as I’ve run into situations where you try to pull into a marina to get water & pumpout and it’s either frozen or winterized. I spent quite a while with the pumpout hose locked open and in the seawater till it thawed and came to life writhing like a snake. A short suck of the 54 degree seawater and it was time to pump out.

The water in Greenwich Bay is a chilly 54 degrees

The Lookback

As I pulled away from the fuel dock, I looked back. Every time I leave I look back. There is an undeniable feeling of freedom. It’s the first moments of a 6 month, 5K mile journey. I smile. The world seems right.

Snow covered fly deck looking back at fuel dock

As I pass Warwick Neck I can see the snow covered Warwick Country Club.

Point Judith

MV Leap of Faith had already called me and gave me the word that the sea was very calm when they exited Narragansett Bay. I was passing Point Judith Light and slowing coming up on a Hunter sailboat who was also enjoying the trip west down Long Island Sound.

At this moment I noticed that my Garmin satellite tracker seemed frozen. I checked my blog’s current position page and it showed that I was still in Warwick, RI? I quick reset of the satellite tracker and it update my position. Ofcourse it drew a straight line between where I left and where I was when the tracker came back to life. I’m guessing someone is going to ask me how I piloted the boat over the state of RI?

Watch Hill

Soon I was passing Watch Hill, RI and some of the beautiful homes along the coast.

Fisher’s Island

I made my way up the inside of Fisher’s Island. There were fishermen working the current between the island and mainland CT.

I don’t know a lot about Fisher’s Island but it looks beautiful as you cruise past.

On the west side of Fisher’s Island you must keep an eye out for the ferry’s as they can sneak up on you pretty fast.

Cross Sound Ferry MV John H – between Orient Point, Long Island, New York and New London, CT

I had planned to anchor behind Fisher’s Island because I had never done that. However, the sea was calm and the moon was bright. I decided to keep going west. The area around Fisher’s Island is called “The Race” and it has strong currents and often gets pretty choppy. Getting inside the northern fork of Long Island seemed like the right thing to do.

With the sun setting Long Island Sound looked amazing.

As night settled in around me I flicked my running lights on and settled back in the captain’s chair for a long night.

Ultimately I settled on an anchorage with only minimal protection but “just off the beaten path” as they say. Not to far inland that it takes an hour to get in and an hour the next morning just to get out.

I anchored just off Fort Trumbull Beach in Milford Harbor. This location is just west of Bridgeport, CT. There is a small island called, Charles Island with a low-tide land bridge. You need to watch your tides down here near the head of Long Island Sound. If you anchor at high tide you might wake up at low tide with the boat resting on the bottom.

The time was now midnight. It had left Warwick, RI at around 10AM so roughly 14 hours to Bridgeport, CT. The 1st 98NM leg of my Winter 2020 journey looked something like this.

It was around 1AM by the time I took a hot shower and got to bed. I’m typing this blog post as I sit in the captain’s chair navigating leg 2 of my journey. Stay tuned for the Leg 2 post.

Running the Inside of the FL Keys

Which Route to Take?

When I left Key West on March 18th, I decided to run East up the inside of the Florida Keys. The weather was both windy and wavy. This inside route can offer some protection as you run up the wind shadows behind different keys. The downside is… it’s also notoriously shallow in certain areas as we’ll see.

Bye, Bye Key West

I untied the lines, jumped aboard and put her in gear. The pic above was snapped just after leaving Sunset Marina. You can see Dredger’s Key on the left iPad as well as straight ahead. You can also see that I didn’t get an early start (8:32AM).

Informational Layout for Navigation

I like to navigate using twin iPads. You can see that the iPad on the left is zoomed out to get the big picture while the iPad on the right is zoomed in for more detail about depths around Simple Life. I split the screen of my MFD (Multi Function Display) to expose different pieces of data. A chart plotter on the left half of the screen, a rear-facing camera on top-right and a scrolling depth display on the bottom-right.

My chart plotter display is mainly used for showing radar & AIS targets. The rear-facing camera let’s me see boat traffic coming up behind me. The scrolling depth is very important as it gives me depth trending. The instrument display to the left of the MFD shows the current depth in real-time. I believe it is more important to understand how the depths are trending. It goes without saying that in almost every grounding case, the ocean floor came up gradually to meet the boat.

My track leaving Key West and anchoring inside Marathon. I can’t stop interpreting this picture as a view from space. A planet with the Keys curving across it’s surface.

Which Route?

I chose to run the shallow inside of the keys and not the plenty deep “Hawks Channel” running east-west just below the keys. Running Hawk’s Channel does not require as much attention because it’s plenty deep. You’ll never worry about running aground. However, the wind had been blowing hard E-S-E for the past few days and I’m guessing the waves in Hawks Channel would have made that passage a rough one.

End of the Day and the Cruise

After running the inside of the Keys all day, the sun was setting. Lucky for me I did not have that much further to reach my chosen anchorage for the night.

As I approached my anchoring location off Vaca Key, I made sure to tuck in close behind land. I hoped to gain a night’s shelter from the wind.

As I crept closer to the shore it shallowed to only 6.1 feet deep.

Now when I anchor, I always need enough water under Simple Life’s 5′ deep keel to make sure she is not laying on her side when low tide hits.

I had already determined that the tides here were less than a foot. It was currently high tide. The boat was in 6.1′ of water. While I’m fast asleep at 3:51AM, the next morning, I should still have an inch or two beneath the boat.

In the daylight fading you see the two other boats that I snuck past to get close to shore.

Sharing my anchor spot with these two while Social Distancing

Anchored, it’s time to celebrate todays run with an IPA (or two) before bed.

Jai Alai by Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, FL

The next day’s cruise was absolutely beautiful. I decided to shoot a short video to give a 360 degree view of what the water looks near Islamorada.

Islamorada near Cotton Key

For reference I placed a marker near Cotton Key, Islamorada.

It’s very shallow here. My shallow water alarm is set to go off below 6′. It is beeping incessantly.

Zipping along at 5 kts with inches beneath the keel.

Below I am approaching Grouper Creek in Key Largo. Here the banks starts to close in around you with mangroves.

Soon I was passing Gilbert’s Resort on Key Largo. Even though Covid-19 was shutting down most activities, this place seemed alive with people enjoying the beautiful day.

At this point I was in Biscayne Bay near Elliot Key just north of Key Largo.

Watching the sunset off Elliot key was beautiful.

I cruised on into the night with my heart set on making it to Miami. As you approach Miami you are struck with how amazing the skyline is from the ocean at night.

Approaching Miami from the ocean at night

I’ll end this post with a short video that I took from Simple Life while on anchor.

It seems like a framed photo rather than a city all lit up and alive with activity

South to Sebastian

When the sun arose the next morning it treated us to an orange sunrise over Mosquito Lagoon.

“Because the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight passes through more air at sunset and sunrise than during the day, when the sun is higher in the sky. More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the violet and blue light away from your eyes. … This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red.”

Going under the Cocoa bridge – Look up & around and you’ll find workers trying to get right with the world again.

…”The Cocoa Bridge gives male inmates an opportunity to get their lives back on track. The foundation of the program is the Therapeutic Community Concepts, which are essential to maintaining a drug-free lifestyle in social contexts. With clinical supervision, this peer-led, peer-driven environment encourages the men to become active participants in their recovery.”
Bridges of America, Inc.

…”The NASA RR bridge is normally left in the open position, except in the case of approaching rail traffic (infrequent). This bridge is the main thoroughfare for shuttling heavy equipment and supplies to and from the JFK Space Center. Spent solid rocket boosters, rocket frames and other various material for the space program are normally shipped on rail and pass over this bridge.”
ActiveCaptain.com

This boat has a super bright light bar atop of it’s hardtop. Heck it was not even that dark out and that light bar was blinding when they were coming straight at us for a moment. I like the idea of having more lights on MV Simple Life. There are some nights when traveling in the pitch black that it would be a big help. I tend to only put my searchlight on for brief moments to not affect my night vision. Maybe I’ll install something smaller under the bow pulpit for lighting the crab/lobster pots at night without destroying my night vision?

I just love sunsets & stars every night on the boat. Too bad I can’t photograph or video the latter.

Our day’s journey took us from Mosquito Lagoon to Sebastion, FL.

Sebastian has a great live music scene. With visiting bands like, Mumford and Son’s and Joe Bonamassa. If we were not trying to get somewhere near an airport, we’d definitely have gone ashore for some live music.

Instead, we spent the night on anchor just inside of Sebastian inlet near coconut point.

…”Sebastian Inlet is 36.5 miles southward of Cape Canaveral Light. In May 1983, there was a reported controlling depth of 5 feet. It is further reported that the velocity of the tidal currents reaches 10 knots, and turbulence exists between the bridge and the end of the jetties. Anchoring east of the bridge is extremely hazardous, particularly by the stern. Except during flat calms, breaking and confused seas exist off the mouth of the inlet and inside the inlet as far as the bridge. Conditions worsen with increasing seas or winds and on an ebb tide. Small boats departing the inlet on a flood or slack tide can find it impossible to return on an ebb tide.”

By the morning, we had spun around with the Sebastian Inlet’s incoming and outgoing tide

Fernandina Beach Florida

I awoke at 4AM before any of the crew. Neither Happy or Brody came out from under the covers to join me. We are in Georgia and it’s only 40 degrees when I awoke.

Heck, the temps were going to fall deeper before the 7:13AM sunrise.

By 6:30AM the sky was starting to lighten up on the ICW.

I decided to walk out on the bow while underway and snap a picture and a quick video before sunrise.

Once the sun rose you could see it burning the face of the daymarks as we passed.

It’s high tide and the rivers are swollen around here. Daymark almost underwater.

When you are at the helm for hours the internet is your entertainment. I was watching Mike-the-Drunken-Donkey from Mike’s Weather Page broadcasting FB Live video stream. I tuned in as Mike taught about weather and what to expect from the winter storm making its way across the US.

Thankfully, MV Simple Life will be in Florida by the end of the day

We were amazed at how flat calm the ICW was as we pushed along at 7 knots.

Not a frozen Lake but contrails in the reflected sky
Daymarks Reflected
Flotsam in the sky
Flotsam everywhere
My reflection as I snap a picture of the bow’s wake

At the helm I’m wearing my work pajamas because it’s still a bit chilly even with the diesel heat on. Happy just figured out that there is HEAT coming out of that little black round duct below the AC panel door. She parked herself right under my feet to steal all the heat.

We were making incredible time as we approached Cumberland Island in Georgia.

10.4 knots because we were enjoying a strong current on our stern.

Then as we looked out, we could see a current line on the surface of the water.

Opposing currents meeting causing white chop

We feared as soon as we crossed this line that our 10.4 knot speed would begin to erode. We could never have guessed just how much.

Strong Current on the nose. 10.4 => 3.9 knots

Knowing we would face this current from our trip around Cumberland Island we attempted to ride close to shore looking for an eddy current (reverse direction). But alas it was no use. We had a long slow ride around the island.

Then it happened. We crossed over the state line into Florida’s Amelia Island A.K.A. Fernandina Beach. As we passed we saw a ship that looked like a member of the Sea Shepherd fleet. We snapped a photo on the way by and low & behold, it was a Sea Shepherd ship.

Kelly & I have always been fans of ocean conservation and the crew of Sea Shepherd work hard to keep our oceans and their inhabitants safe.

We are currently anchored in the Amelia River just over the GA-FL state line.

*Sun is setting in the Amelia River as I finish this post*

Today’s leg looked something like this finger drawn route.

W02L021 – Darien, GA to Fernandina Beach, FL

Sun Goes Down on Georgia

We awoke on anchor just South of Turtle Island in SC. It’s a tiny uninhabited island that is on the Atlantic Ocean. There is hardly any light at night so the stars just pop out at you. They seem so much brighter and like you could reach up an touch them. Seeing the cosmos this way makes you realize that your consciousness is contemplating your existence on a small planet in the Milky Way galaxy. I wish there was a way to capture it in a picture but alas I have not found a way.

Cold. It’s F’n cold when I stand outside and watch the sunrise. It’s part of the experience but it’s also the whole reason we left New England and have been boating for the last 180 hours. Getting away from the cold means traveling further South than you would think. It’s only 36 degree as I stand out there watching the sunrise. 36 degrees and I’m on the edge of Georgia! Time to simply weigh anchor and go..

Turtle Island is South of Hardeeville but I’m guessing this weather app has no data for Turtle Island.

When anchored in weather like this you need a 12V heater as there are no long extension cords leading to the boat. Kelly & I installed a Espar D8LC 27K BTU diesel-fired forced-hot-air heater and mornings like this I realize we would never live on a boat without HEAT.

Espar D8LC Diesel-Fired Forced Hot Air Heater Schematic

Georgia has enormous tides and strong currents.

We were riding an 8′ high tide so we were unstoppable. Well, I mean unstoppable in the sense we probably won’t run into a shoal and be stopped dead in our tracks.

Field’s Cut is just before the ICW crosses the Savannah River and we had to cruise fast to get ahead of the oncoming container ship that just issued a ‘securite’ warning that they were on incoming on the Savannah River and approaching Fields Cut. You need to listen to these securite calls from large ships if you don’t want to wind up on the wrong end of them. We’d have snapped a photo but we were more concerned with staying out of their way. We hailed the ship and let them know that we would be crossing in front of their bow and that we would not be in their way.

Finger drawn route of us crossing Savannah River into GA from Fields Cut in SC

We call this picture “Bush of White Birds” cuz we so creative.

We slipped under this bridge carefully as we just fit beneath.

Low bridges that boat traffic must wait on openings are being replaced by tall 65′ high bridges. That’s a good thing for boaters and motorists alike.

I learned today that the Surf City Swing Bridge was just replaced by a full-height Bridge. Time to update my bridge list.pdf

Kelly has a thing for wooden transom boats so we snapped these pics of MV Sandrita as she was being hauled via a marine travel lift. We had to slow down to no wake speed as these dock workers were trying to load her in the slings.

Going into the Slings
Don’t you just love a Wooden transom?

We hailed this blue-hulled sailboat to warn them they were approaching a shoal. They had already figured it out but thanked us as they backed out of the channel they were in. Captains on the water are kind and always offer help if they see another boater doing something that might get them into trouble. I’ve had captains hail me and say… Simple Life, you need to keep that red tight to port to clear that shoal”. Kelly & I feel lucky to be apart of a group that looks out for one another.

Approaching Hell’s Gate – a notorious shallow cut that leaves boats aground

Kelly & I each bought Florida saltwater fishing licenses today. We’ll be in Florida for a minimum of 3 weeks while we prepare for our Bahamas departure.

If we catch a single edible fish, We’ll have paid $130.70 for it 😉 Should have gone to the Capital Grille and just ordered the fish special.

I am on many Facebook Boating groups and love the discussions about the Aqua Maps Explorer Bahamas charts. Folks complaining about the fact that they are raster (bitmap) charts vs vector charts which use math equations to draw the charts at each particular zoom level. It’s interesting to me not just because they pictured Green Turtle Cay where Kelly & I have wanted to visit but that I just am drawn to nautical charts. We hung one on the 275 gallon oil tank in our old house that we sold. It took me hours to print each individual 8″x11″ chart and piece them all together to have a huge chart of Narragansett Bay. I enjoy staring at paper charts like they are artwork for ship captains. Vector charts lack the beauty of raster (paper-style) charts.