Spunky Moving South

John has sent out a couple of short updates but he sends to a somewhat different list than I so I will send mine as well and apologize for any duplication. 

We left Stuart, FL on Thursday morning and had an uneventful motor trip down the ICW to Lake Worth Inlet where we went out onto the Atlantic about 4:30 p.m. and set course for Miami. Shortly before going through the inlet our autohelm started to act up. As we sailed south from the inlet the autohelm stopped steering a course so we turned it off and began to hand steer. We sailed for a few hours but the wind died down and with the waves behind us it became difficult to hand steer so we turned on the engine for the remainder of the trip. It was an easy trip. It was very pretty watching the shore lights as we went by. We shortened our watches as we were hand steering and arrived outside of Government Cut in Miami by 6 a.m. We slowed down and waited for two huge cruise ships to enter the cut and then followed them in. With the ships docking in the channel, the marine police close it to recreation traffic and we took a left and came in by Fisherman's Channel. We had anchor down by 7;30 a.m. in our anchorage just south of Belle Island right off South Beach. It is so pretty here with interestingly designed condos lining Biscayne Bay.  We spent the day napping and trying to decide what to do about the autohelm. We called a contractor to try to get an idea of repair cost and it had the potential to be huge. We would have to go into a marina and have the contractor test the compass. If it was working they would suspect the control computer which would have to be sent back to Ray Marine for repair or totally replaced. After adding up medical bills, boat insurance and potential repairs it was clear our cruising kitty would be gone. 

Saturday our friends whom we met in Stuart, Rick and Chris on One With The Wind, arrived in the anchorage and we took them into South Beach to show them the Publix, Ace Hardware and Lincoln Mall which a wonderful outdoor mall-actually a main street that has been closed to traffic with shops and restaurants. We walked all the way down to the Beach listening to all the voices speaking many languages and watching all the interesting people. At night we watch the lights.

Sunday Rick came over to Spunky to help troubleshoot the autohelm. He spent about 3 hours moving our compass location and cleaning wire attachments. We took Spunky out that afternoon to check the results and still did not have success. John and I then disconnected the compass once again and checked the resistance between the wires and put things back together again. 

Monday we once again took Spunky out to try to calibrate the autohelm which requires going around in circles a full 360 degrees 2 to 3 times until the autohelm senses what it requires to steer our boat. Success !!! we think. It seemed to hold a course so we returned to our anchorage. 

John thinks we are set. I am hopeful. Now we will enjoy South Beach find a laundry and await a weather window that will allow us ample time to cross the Gulf Stream and arrive in Nassau. 

The weather here is lovely. Temps in the high 70's and low 80's. We hope that 2013 is beginning well for all of you.

Elyse and John

sv/Spunky

Sweating in Miami

We are enjoying our stay in Miami waiting for weather.  Thanks to my new best friend Ric, on One with the Wind, our auto pilot is now working. He spent yesterday morning cleaning terminals and relocating the compass.  This morning Elyse and I calibrated the auto pilot and adjusted the deviation.  He saved us a bunch of $'s and time.  We are now just waiting for a good weather window.  We are hopeful it will come next week.  There is a short window tomorrow but we are going to wait for a little longer window.

South Beach is a great place to spend some time anyway.  We may watch the Super Bown there.  We are rooting for Elye's  49ers.  Hope you have a good week.

John & Elyse on Spunky

Miami

Hey gang,

We arrived in Miami at the crack of dawn on Friday after sailing (motoring mostly) overnight from Stuart.  We had some problems with our auto pilot and will see about getting it resolved.  We have a nice breeze this morning and we are told it will be 81 degrees.  We had a couple we met in Stuart over for a drink last night and showed them some of South Beach today.  He is coming over tomorrow to look at our auto pilot.  I am hopeful I will only need a new compass.

It was great walking down the Lincoln Mall today.  It's not your typical mall.  The closed about 7 blocks of Lincoln Ave and put in fountains and restaurants, etc.  While in Publics today we ran into a young man we met last year in St Mary's, GA.  He is single handing his way down to the Florida Keys.

As soon as the auto pilot is fixed and we get a good weather window we will head to Nassau.  It looks like the wind will be out of the North East for the next several days.  We need to wind to be out of the south to cross the Gulf Stream.  

As my friend Ed Kelly says, I hope this is a great week for you.

John & Elyse  

Update from Stuart

Dear Friends

I have included a photo of the mooring field where we have been living for the last month.  It's the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart.  It is a great place with a nice downtown.  The marina has a lot of services including free bicycles and a bus that takes us to many places like grocery and marine stores.  We have met some great people.  We are having dinner tonight with some Canadians we met last year.

As of the 20th I am cleared to do what ever I want.  Elyse has kept me busy.  Yesterday we changed the fuel filters and today we took the boat in and filled our fuel and water tanks.  Our current plan is to leave here on Thursday and go off shore at Lakeworth, FL and sail overnight to Miami.  It is also a great place.  The grocery and South Beach are a short dingy ride away from where we will anchor.  We will wait there until we get a good weather window.  That means that the waves in the Gulf Stream are under 3 feet and the wind will hopefully enable us to sail.  We will sail from Miami overnight to Nassau.  From there we will work our way down the Exuma islands.  There are a lot of places we want to visit again and couple we missed last year we want to see. Places like Big Major where the wild pigs swim out to greet you when you dingy ashore.

The weather has been great in the 70's.  Today the wind is blowing pretty hard.  We hope it will die down before we dingy in for dinner.  We have settled into some routines.  Meeting people, doing boat chores and relaxing.  It is a nice life.  We hope your life is good as well.  As my friend Ed Kelly says, "I hope this is the greatest week of your life".

John &  Elyse on Spunky

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! It is 2013 and we are here in Stuart, FL. There is supposed to be a great weather window this week, the first week of the year, so many of the southward bound boats will be leaving the mooring field. We, of course, will remain as we are awaiting John's appointment with the surgeon on Jan. 4th.

We are enjoying being in one place for an extended period as it has allowed us to order some needed items on line and have them shipped to the marina. The weather has been lovely excect for a few days of high winds when a front passed through and the morning temps dipped below 50 degrees. The sunsets are beautiful and the dolphins play in the river. We don't think we could have found a better spot to be "stuck"  for 6 weeks.

We are trying to take advantage of some of the opportunities here in Stuart so we went to see Paula Poundstone perform at the Lyric Theater. She was very funny. The theater gets some very good acts and it not anywhere near the cost of the DC area. We are buying our vegetables at a small local market within walking distance of the marina that carries local produce and products and we rented a car to take to Melbourne for John's appt. and used it to go to a movie, Les Miserables. In the evenings we watch shows on Netflix and read a lot.

As for John's appt. with the surgeon, it went well. The doc said everything looked good and John could begin to lift things again slowly just not any major strain til 6 weeks. Once we get to Jan. 20 he can pretty much do what his body tells him is not painful. So we are relieved. We will remain here until then and try to decide if we want to go off shore again and risk another emergency. We will probably head down to Miami before the end of the month going outside the ICW at Lake Worth, FL and see how we do with raising the sails.

Today we will go into shore for a marina potluck and to watch the Redskins play Seattle.Life is good for us and we hope for all of you as well.

Elyse and John

Merry Christman

We spent three days in Vero on a mooring ball rafted up next to a beautiful Island Packet 45, Margarita, with a very nice couple, Bill and Margaret, who we really enjoyed. They were on their boat when we arrived and were able to assist in our rafting . They were waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. While in Vero we were able to visit with some friends from Annapolis who are heading south and also where able to take the free public bus into town to get a little shopping done. We can't do too much at one time since I am the only one who can currently carry any groceries back to Spunky.

Vero Beach has a mooring field off of the municipal marina in a very protected creek. They pretty much accommodate all boats by rafting (tying together) 2-3 boats on a ball. It is a nice place to stop with easy access to groceries and boat services. We enjoyed our stay but were anxious to get a mooring in Stuart where we planned to stay until John's doc appt. back in Melbourne on Jan 4. We were in touch with our friend Jage who lives on her boat in the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart and was assisting us in getting an open mooring. They fill up quickly and do not raft boats so we needed to know when one came open so we could get there quickly. Jage suggested we come down and anchor across the river if none were available so we left Vero early Sunday morning and headed down the ICW with plans to arrive between 1 and 2 p.m. in Stuart. On our way we received a call from the marina that our name was next on the list and there was a ball available. On the way down our throttle cable stuck and would not let us accelerate past a certain point so we were a little bit slow in transit but arrived and attempted to pick up the empty ball. Usually John drives up to the mooring ball and I use a boat hook to grab it and attach it by line to Spunky. It is not usually a problem.  We proceeded as usual but as we approached the ball Spunky's momentum kept her going past the ball while I was holding on. I ended up flat on the deck holding on to the pennant as it floated past the bow toward the stern while trying to communicate with John that I needed help. We didn't have a hand signal for Help!! I finally let it go and we circled around for our second try. I was just on edge with all my new responsibilities and didn't handle things as well as I might have. The second time worked fine and we had a chuckle about our first try.

Stuart is a charming town on the St. Lucia River with a small downtown area with restaurants and shops within walking distance of the marina. We have enjoyed the potlucks and 'meet and greets' at the marina. Dec. 21 was a Christmas sing-a-long in the Marina lounge. We have used the marina shuttle to get to West Marine, Publix grocery store, and Walmart.It runs twice a week in the morning. Today we walked into the old downtown area and found the public bus stop which is a free service that goes to the big box stores out on Highway US 1.

It is Christmas Eve and we are back on Spunky fixing dinner and relaxing. Tomorrow will be a potluck dinner with the cruisers and marina inhabitants who are here for the holiday. We are thinking of all our family and friends and hoping everyone has a wonderful day. We are thrilled to have a new granddaughter, born on Dec. 21, Cora Elizabeth Solomon. Know that you all are all in our thoughts and our hearts.

Merry Christmas,
Elyse and John

Heading South

Hello to you.  It has been too long since I sent an update.  So long I have forgotten many of the shortcuts on the Mac.  I will work to do better.  I have added Elyse's updates which are always better written and entertaining.  If you like, you can read mine as the Reader's Digest version.

We are currently located in Stuart, FL.  It is one of our favorite stops along the way.  We are on a mooring and have all of the services of showers and laundry.  We met friends from last year when we were here and Elyse is off shopping with them now. We are back in cruising form.  Only wear shoes to go ashore and the long pants have been stored away.  We are dealing with bugs but that is a small sacrifice.

This past year we made a pledge to renew old friendships and contacts.  We rented a car in Annapolis and drove around and visited kids and grandkids who had not been able to visit us in DC.  We also saw my old VMI roommate, Larry Boese, and his wife.  Larry is a retired 3 star Air Force general.  I wish I had followed his lead in school.  We saw my old boss and close friend Ann Sarles in Memphis and saw friends in Panama City.  On the way back to Annapolis we spent the night with the Larkens in Columbia, SC

The Annapolis Harbor Boatyard again got Spunky ready to head south.  New bottom paint and polish.  Our big purchase this year was a water maker.  We are looking forward to an unlimited supply of fresh water while in the Bahamas.  We worked at the Boat Show again.  More work than money so we are trying to decide if we will return next year.  We spent time with lots of old friends and met some new ones.

We headed south around the first of November.  It was already getting much too cold.  We stopped in Solomon's Island and had trouble with the windlass which pulls the anchor and chain back on board.  They do not make our model any more and parts are getting hard to find.  We decided we would bite the bullet and go replace it and upgrade the size to handle our larger 73 lb anchor.  As we continued south, Hurricane Sandy was coming north.

We had promised to stop and see my old friend Renny Barnes in Fleets bay on the Chesapeake.  Renny and I grew up two blocks from each other from the time we were in 2nd grade.  He and his beautiful wife Lena built and incredible home on a point of land near White Stone, VA.  They had arranged for us to put Spunky at a friends dock because their water was too shallow.  At the same time we research and selected our new Maxwell windlass.  Sandy passed by and we adjusted lines and lived with two feet of water over the dock.  After passing it turned very cold.  We quickly accepted Lena's invitation to move into their warm home.  Through their contacts we selected a yard to help with the deck modifications that were needed.

We have seldom been better cared for.  It was great spending time with Renny and sharing old stories with Lena and Elyse.  Some of them may have even been true.  Because of the hurricane many businesses in the Northeast were closed.  It took longer than expected to get the windlass and I started filling out adoption papers and prepared to change our name to Barnes.  Friends went from it is so great for Renny to spend time with his old friend to, "they're still there?". We went to a neighbor's birthday party and the local Oyster Festival.

We moved to the Weldon Brothers Marina in Deltaville for the installation and they did a fantastic job at a great price.  As you will read, I am very happy we put in the new windlass.  Renny and Lena drove over and took us to dinner.

We had great weather with good wind behind us as we moved south.  We went through the Dismal Swamp that had been built by George Washington and dug by hand.  We stopped in Elizabeth City and spent a couple of nights with Don and Jean Pratt, another childhood friend.  At one point on the Nuess River we hit 9.5 knots of speed, motor sailing with just our genoa out.  For us that was very exciting.  We reached Hilton Head right after Thanksgiving.

We secured the boat in a marina and moved into a time share condo with Ann Sarles and another old friend Marilyn Shane.  While there we saw Michael Griffith and his daughter Ryan.  Like Haley she is still looking for the "right" position.  She spent years over seas in the middle and far east.

We left Hilton Head and sailed overnight to St Augustine, FL.  From their we followed the ICW to Cocoa Village and met up with my Cousin, Mary Solomon.  She is a retired Air Force LTC who at one point had taught Astronautical Physics at the Naval Academy.  She spent most of her career launching missiles and putting up satellites.  She now teaches underwater photography and diving.  She was able to fix Elyse up with all new snorkeling gear for a song.

We left there for the Seven Seas Cruising Association meeting in Melbourne.  It is a great group we listened to some nationally known speakers and saw several people we had met last year in our travels.  On Saturday night we left a little early to return to our boat.  Our dingy was tangled in a group of seven others.  I had to climb around and push and pull lines to get where we could get in and get back to our boat.  At that point things got bad.

I started having increasing pain in my lower abdomen.  It became so severe I told Elyse I needed to get to a hospital.  When we were unable to reach friends at the meeting who had cars I said call an ambulance.  At the hospital it was determined I had an acute hernia.  They had to put me to sleep to stuff my intestines back in the hole.   The next day the operated and repaired it.  Over the years Elyse had learned how to operate the dingy and outboard but as rule I handled it.  She returned to it at 1:30 am alone and started the engine and got back to the boat.  She has had to take over all the chores and lifting on the boat.  I am glad we have the new windlass that enables her to raise the anchor with a foot peddle.

We then went to Vero Beach and now to Stuart.  We will be here through Christmas and maybe New Years.  We will rent a car and drive back to Melbourne for my follow up appointment.  We are still planning to go to Miami and then cross to the Bahamas.

Spunky Fall 2012

After leaving St. Augustine, FL, we had two nice days of motoring down through FL to Cocoa where we anchored out and spent some time with cousin Mary Solomon. Mary was kind to take us to her home where we could shower and do laundry. We were able to use her great expertise to purchase new snorkel equipment. She is a master diver and travels the world diving and exploring.  We wandered through Cocoa Village with lots of small gift shops and art galleries. It is lovely here. We can't believe how many dolphins we saw on the trip down. I dug out my bird book to follow the shore birds. Today the temp is forecast to be in the high 70's. I am finally warm.

We arrived in Eau Gallie Wed. morning and anchored close to the civic center where the SSCA gam will take place over the weekend. We plan to enjoy the speakers and vendor displays and ask a lot of questions of the other cruisers.

Well Friday and Saturday went well and we heard good speakers, saw friends and had a good time. Around 9 p.m. we were tired and headed back to Spunky on the hook out in the anchorage. There were about 6-7 dinghys at the dock and John had to push and pull to get ours out of the group. As he climbed onto Spunky he started having strong pains in his lower abdomen. In a few minutes the pain went from bad to worse. I tried to reach our friend Debbie with a car who had driven down to the gam but the call did not go through so I called 911. They said to get him to shore and there would be an ambulance. We got to shore and rode to the nearest hospital where they determined it was an acute hernia and proceeded to try and push John's intestines back into his abdomen. The pain was intense and the admitting doc called the surgeon who came down and put John under anesthesia so they could push things back together. When that was done it was about 1 a.m. and I left him called a taxi and returned to the dock. Due to my back problems, I don't often start the outboard or run the dinghy but there I was at 1:30 a.m. by myself getting the outboard going and getting myself back to Spunky. I was truly concerned that I would not be able to get the outboard started as it can be temperamental not to mention steering the thing accurately enough to glide up along side Spunky and climb aboard. I did both and arrived totally exhausted but so hyped up that after running the generator to charge the batteries I could not get to sleep.  I managed those trips in to shore and back to Spunky until Monday afternoon when the surgeon released John after preforming repair surgery on Sunday and with a promise not to lift anything or strain for 6 weeks. Our good friend Debbie, with whom we sailed in the Bahamas last winter, was there for us driving me back and forth from the dock to the hospital and back again.

Tuesday we figured out a way for me to raise the dinghy onto the davits since I don't have the strength to pull it up and my back was not up to that task even if I did. Wednesday morning John coached me through raising the anchor and we were off to Vero Beach to catch a mooring and spend a few days trying to do some provisioning. We arrived Wed. afternoon and rafted up with a 45 ft. Island Packet (beautiful boat). Later I will lower the dinghy (not as hard as raising it) and we will head into the marina.

We have pretty much decided we will not attend another gam considering it was last year at the gam in Annapolis when I ended up in the hospital for emergency abdominal surgery late Saturday night. We are not up for a replay of these medical emergencies.

After leaving Barefoot Marina we made good time and arrived at Minim Creek where we dropped anchor. We began to notice there were, would you believe it, mosquitos in the cockpit enclosure. That was our first indication that we were indeed in the south. The next morning at daybreak it was once again COLD so I guess the mosquitos were sorry they made an appearance. I know we where.

We made it through Charleston on the day before T-day. Our timing was right and we were able to get through the Ben Sawyer and Wappo River Bridges on request which was helpful to our schedule. Mon. - Fri. they are both closed from 6-9 in the a.m. and 4-6 in the afternoon. We anchored on the Stono River. It has strong current and often brisk winds but we were fine with our trusty anchor and new windlass. On the way, in the morning after the sun had come up, we passed two eagles. One was sitting on an ICW marker post and the other was standing on the shore. I believe they were soaking up the warm sunshine which I was doing as well.

The past 2 days we have motored as there has been very little wind. By the afternoons we begin shedding all the layers of clothes we pile on every morning. Each day it seems the weather is getting better. We have passed 3 barges in 2 days going down the canal and bumped the bottom twice trying to move over to the side to let the barge,being pushed by a tug, go by. It is nerve wracking when that happens. The barges are huge and really fill up the canal.

We spent the next night, Thanksgiving evening, anchored just south of Beaufort, SC knowing that we would arrive in Hilton Head early the following day giving us time to get up Broad Creek and into our marina for the week we will spend there. We arrived around noon and got checked in. We then washed down the deck and cockpit enclosure which was covered with dirt and salt from our travels. We plan on spending the day organizing and cleaning both ourselves and Spunky.

Our week in Hilton Head was wonderful. It was a very quiet and relaxing time with friends. Hilton Head is a beautiful island that has been comparatively cautious with development as opposed to many resort areas. There are thousands of acres preserved in their natural state with abundant flora and fauna. Our marina was populated with many dolphins that swam between the docked boats throughout the day. We were sorry to leave but Friday at daybreak we motored down Broad Creek and headed out to sea. The day was fair. We had moderate wind and motor sailed throughout the day and into the night taking shifts of about 3 hours each (actually John took longer shifts than I). By nightfall the waves were coming across the beam and tossing us back and forth. Everything not tied down below fell to the floor and what was tied down shifted it's location. Every time that I tried to sleep I was tossed off the settee. At 4 a.m. we reached the point at which we could turn toward St. Augustine and enter the inlet or try for the Canaveral Canal, and although the guides caution on shoaling and the need for local knowledge in St. Augustine we were ready for a rest and we decided to go for it. We slowed down as we approached the entry bouys to try and time our entry for sunrise so we would be able to see the inlet markers and called the City Marina for advice on which areas to watch. We made a successful entry and were safely at the fuel dock by 8:15 a.m.

Tomorrow morning we will once again depart at daybreak heading for the Melbourne area where we will visit friends and family and possibly attend the SSCA gam. Today we took a mooring ball, showered and treated ourselves to a nice lunch at A1A Restaurant. This afternoon John is tracking down small leaks and topping off oil and coolant. The air temp was close to 70 degrees and the water temp over 50!! We are finally getting far enough south to be comfortable.

Elyse and John

Heading South, Fall 2012

Well all is well. The windlass was completed by Monday morning and we left at 10:30 hoping to make Norfolk. We entered Hampton Roads in the dark and made for an anchorage at Hospital Point which is named for the Veterans Hospital there. As we motored past the navy yard with all the ships in port we were shadowed by a patrol boat with flashing lights. The anchorage when we arrived had about 6 boats but we found a spot and dropped anchor for the night. It is always a relief to find an anchorage where there is room for us.

We were up at 5:30 a.m. when it was still dark in order to travel the distance to the Gilmerton Bridge before 6:30 at which time it closes to passing vessels until 9:30 a.m. We needed to get through so we could get through the Deep Creek Lock on the Dismal Swamp by 8:30 so we could make it all the way through the swamp in one day and end up in Elizabeth City at night fall. We are still hopeful that we can make Hilton Head in time to meet our friends. While pulling up the anchor for the first time we discovered that the windlass would not set the anchor. So John used the winch to set it and we were off and running to the bridge.

The dock master at the Deep Creek Lock where vessels are raised to canal level, invited the crews on the 3 boats in to his house for breakfast and a short history lesson on the canal. It was wonderful to be inside as it was raining hard and very cold standing on Spunky's deck with our ropes tied to the lock wall as the water rose to canal height.

We left there and headed for the South Mills lock and made it through in great time but alas were held up for the scheduled opening at the Elizabeth City Bridge resulting in our trying to find our slip at Pelican Marina in the dark and cold. Neither of us see too well after dark. While we were waiting for the bridge, I called the bridge tender and passed along a hello from friends Chris and Sheila on the catamaran Never Bored who we met in St. Mary's, GA last year. They had met and enjoyed a friendship with Jack the bridge tender the previous year on their way south.  He said it made his day to have a message from Chris and Sheila and offered us the use of his truck while we were in town.

We stayed 2 nights at Pelican Marina and our friends Don and Jean came over from Southern Shores, NC to pick us up and take us to their home for a great dinner, a shower and laundry. They drove us down the outer banks to see the damage inflicted by Sandy. What a mess. There were piles of furniture on the roadside awaiting pickup. On Thursday morning we were back on our way south.

Due to the Northeast winds we were able to put our genoa out and make great time. The first night we anchored outside the entrance to the Alligator River-Pungo River canal. The winds were hight but we were fine. We were on the way by 6:30 the next morning but just as we entered the canal the engine overheated and John discovered a leak in a coolant hose. We dropped anchor in the canal and in 20 min. John did a quick repair  with Rescue Tape and we were on our way. We could not believe how many boats were passing us going south. Must be the late start for everyone due to Sandy.

We spent Friday night just north of Oriental, NC  at River Dunes marina and left at the crack Sat. morning heading for Beaufort, NC in the hopes we could go off shore but no such luck the waves outside were 10-14 ft. and the winds were high so we committed to the ICW and put out our genoa. With a good NNE wind we made great time and pulled into Hammock Bay to anchor along with about 10 other vessels. Hammock Bay is at the south end of Camp Lejune and is the only anchorage available in that stretch. The winds were high throughout the night and a small sailboat pulled in over our anchor chain late in the evening. We were concerned about leaving in the a.m. (neither of us got much sleep) as we are usually the first ones out at daybreak and we knew it would be difficult to pull anchor with the other boat sitting over our chain. It was a problem but fortunately the captain heard us start our engine and came up to move his boat.

The weather was pretty crumby during the day. Lots of heavy rain and wind. It was cold as well.  We put out our genoa and made it to Carolina Beach where we anchored in 25-30 mph winds for the night. Our anchor held tight and the next morning on the Cape Fear River the winds continued high but we kept going and made it to Barefoot Marina inside South Caroling for the night. John took a taxi (no curtesy car) to West Marine to get the required hose to repair the leak and then changed the oil. The long days are beginning to catch up to us.

This morning we left at daybreak and  there was no wind so here we are motoring along hoping to pass Georgetown, SC today and get to Charleston on Wed. Nov. 21. The sun is out and the Wacamaw River is beautiful. 

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving.

Elyse and John