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Beaufort NC to Chesapeake VA

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We had a good visit in Beaufort NC with our friends Mike and Marilyn who live nearby.  While at lunch we saw the wild horses that live on the local islands just across the channel.   We departed Beaufort NC, after a day of rest and awaiting wind.  We had to depart the dock at 8 at slack water as there is quite a current in this channel when the tide is running, and we had to get around the stern of a 160’ sailboat docked in front of us.  Interestingly, this boat has a draft of 25’, but the channel shows depths of under 20’ in places, so it appears to be stuck here for a while awaiting a King tide.   The forecast was for N15 to 20 but easing mid day so we did the first 15 miles up Adams Creek to the Neuse River at idle speed as we didn’t want to get there too early.  And is was moderately choppy even  in Adams Creek initially.  Our friends tell us that the Corps of Engineers (who maintain the ICW) call the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound the “Pamlico Ocean” as from where one enters the N
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Hilton Head to Beaufort NC

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Our departure from Hilton Head Monday was forecasting moderate winds, but from the South so behind us, and we had a good travel day.   We needed to break up the leg to Charleston and previously we had stopped at Beaufort SC ( Bew-fert), but this time we wanted to get a little further. We picked a small marina on Dataw Island, about 15 miles beyond Beaufort, which made for about a 50 mile run for the day, arriving before 2. The marina had recently reopened after a rebuild from a hurricane a few years ago. It was about 4 miles off the ICW and a bit more exposed than expected, but they had a great crew to help with lines and securing the boat in the wind that had come up. What a find it turned out to be.  Dataw is a private golf community island and a beautiful residential community.  Since we had a good portion of the afternoon still we got out on our bikes. It was very good to get off the boat again and get some exercise, which I forgot to mention in our last blog how much we enjoyed
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Vero Beach to Hilton Head

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 Now that was a good week of travel!  We departed Vero Beach on Monday at dawn with a forecast of 15 to 20 knot winds, but from the East so it would be on our beam, and the relatively protected Indian River would not provide much fetch to pick up significant wave action.  As it turned out, the wind was more like 12-14 and that is a materially different sea state, with not much more than a light chop.  It was cool though, and this was the first day since November that we steered from inside all day.  We had thought we might only get as far as Melbourne, but with the good conditions, we pushed on for Cape Canaveral area, which was a 50 mile run for the day.  There aren’t a lot of great marina choices in the area so we thought we would try something new.  It looked good on their website.   Bad choice.  Worst marina ever.  We arrived about 3 and we didn’t have much choice about moving on so decided to stay.  The marina manager had said that the docks were new, which is usually a good thing
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Marathon to Vero Beach

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Since our last blog post, we spent two additional days in Marathon since the wind was still blowing. The Marlin Bay marina is a great spot to hang out for added time.   Greg developed a sore back for no known reason, and fortunately there was a massage therapist working at the club on our last day.  The combination of the massage and some time in the hot tub was ideal to allow us to get underway.  We got away from Marathon Tuesday in somewhat lighter wind conditions.  Although it was blowing from the SE and our route would supposedly be in the lee of the Keys chain, the shallow water dictates that one has to stick to the designated channel, which is still a number of miles from land and lots of fetch to pick up some wave action.   Progressing along the route there are some small keys and sand banks that provide a bit of reprieve from the waves, but the boat still got pretty salty by the time we got to Elliott Key, at the south end of Biscayne Bay. This was a 70 mile run and a good star
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Back to the Keys

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We are back in the Keys, after a 3 day trek from our last post, and of course awaiting weather (wind) again.  We departed the lovely little marina south of Venice just after sun up and moved to a nearby fuel dock with the cheapest fuel available on the Gulf Coast.  Good thing, as we took on a lot!   After 45 minutes fueling, we were underway by 0830 for the run south to Naples.  This is a 70 mile run total, down Pine Island Sound and then into open water at Fort Myers Beach for 25 miles to Gordon Pass, into Naples.  The weather was generally good, with calm conditions in the protected waters and a 10-15 NW wind blowing from behind making for a reasonably comfortable trip in the open area.  We enjoyed a very quiet night at the Naples Yacht Club. We got underway early the next day for the 70 mile run to Little Shark River, all offshore with again 10-15 NW wind behind us.  We anchored for the night, after 3 attempts in different locations to get the hook set. We did explore the back passa
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