Chasing the sun

After a great overnight sail we entered at Jacksonville and made our way to St Augustine, one of our favorite spots on the ICW. With its Spanish history, the town has a lot of character and we enjoyed 2 nights there on a mooring, catching up with friends and walking the streets.

The ICW is not always that interesting and often involves days of motoring down long straight stretches, but at least it is getting warmer. There is a mix of wilderness and housing, a lot of it extravagant trophy houses, all built on very low land and now that we are in Florida, it is also subject to hurricanes.

This always surprised us....a small power boat with four huge outboards on the stern...a bit over the top!

The birdlife has been amazing which is great to see....a huge variety...

We spent Christmas anchored off a friends house in Cocoa along with Dave and Helen on "Grace of Longstone" After almost 4 years stashed away in the forward cabin, our 3hp outboard replaced the oars as the 1/2 mile row ashore, often in windy conditions, with 4 onboard, was a bit much even for Phil to attempt every day. 5 days later it was retired again and now we are back to rowing. Mark and Carol joined us here and are with us for the next few months, and we waved off Warren and Deb from NZ as they continued on their road trip. Parts ordered online were picked up and yet more food was stashed onboard for the months ahead.

 

We are anchored at Lake Worth tonight and plan to set off at dawn tomorrow for the Bahamas. There are a lot of boats here planning to do the same as it has been a while since the weather has been suitable for the short hop over. The boat is sitting low in the water, laden with fuel, water and food, which is always a sign that we are about to set off on another adventure. This one sees us heading to the Panama Canal via the Bahamas, Cuba and maybe the Caymans and Providencia.....and then we will be back in our ocean again after 4 exciting years in the Atlantic.

Chasing the sun

Three anchorages later we made our way into New York via the East River which is a great way to see the city.

We anchored the first night by the Statue of Liberty . Here's our view that evening.....

Next morning we motored up the Hudson River to 79th Street Marina where we picked up a mooring. It's only a short walk to Central Park and we joined the crowds on a beautiful sunny Autumn Sunday to walk the park and then down to Broadway.....

Terry left for home and we headed south with one last pass close to the Lady. It was a grey, cold day so we bundled up and set off for Norfolk at the bottom of the Chesapeake. It was a 2 night sail and  we couldn't believe the difference in the temperature by moving 300 miles south, so nice to drop a layer of thermals!!

As we approached Norfolk we were joined by 5 other boats all chasing the sun. It was the first time we have been amongst so many boats in a long time. We got to see some of America's mighty naval vessels as we made our way up to the city of  Norfolk where we found a free public dock so we enjoyed a night tied up and topped up our water.

The Intracoastal Waterway starts here so it became days of motoring from one channel marker to another (one grounding), often in very narrow canals, plenty of bridges, some which opened at set times. We noticed that a lot had been replaced by new bridges with a height of 65 feet so that definitely made life easier. There were anchorages everywhere, always in stunning places of wilderness.

Looking back and looking forward shows you the flat marshy land, plenty of tree trunks on the sides of the canal, birds, a few small villages....that was it for the next four days...

As we head south it really feels like we are on our way home. Every mile takes us closer to the Pacific with plenty to see before we reach Panama Canal. It's going to be a great year....I wonder where we will be for Christmas...

Winter is chasing us south...it's snowing at Mystic Seaport

It was great to get back to Greens Island, just next to Vinalhaven, where we spent a lot of time with Margaret and Brian. Brian rows this skiff over to work every day! Phil took the yacht over to town to watch the rugby at 4am while I enjoyed a girls night by candlelight  with Margaret. The island was humming 20 years ago but now there's just these two here in the summer.

Mark (above) was living on the island with his family 20 years ago and had started this post and beam house. It was great to see it finished and we had a lovely evening there, again by candlelight. Mark and Carol live on Vinalhaven now.

The Vinalhaven harbor was crowded with lobster boats. The yachts and launches have mostly been hauled out and covered for the winter. We feel like we might be the last boat to be cruising this late in the season.

Portland was our first city in a long while. We were kindly given a berth at Portland Yacht Services which is owned by Phin, a very interesting guy who loved talking with Phil about anything connected with boats. It's a great city to walk around and we caught up with several more friends while waiting for a serious blow to go through.

Leaving at dusk (4.30pm) on November 3rd we did an overnight sail to Gloucester. It was now November and the days were getting shorter and definitely cooler. Once again we were given a dock to tie up while we enjoyed a very social few days. It's always fun to re-visit places and people.

Terry has joined us for the next leg to New York. We left on a windy forecast, but it was from behind and we had a great sail south through the Cape Cod Canal, anchoring in Mattapoisett.                     

The engine stopped as we were approaching the anchorage so we dropped anchor while Phil changed the filters. We covered a short distance before it died again. Dropped anchor, checked fuel, discovered air was getting into the filters, checked all the connections and no leaks so decided the lift pump wasn't working. Being a sealed unit Phil couldn't fix it so we ordered a new one over the phone to collect closer to New York. He used the electric lift pump from the diesel heater which was installed as a back up.

                                                                                                                                           
 There was a glorious sunset as we dropped anchor at Mason Island the following day, overlooking an island retreat. The moon was almost full and it was a perfect ending to a big 70 mile day.

We wrote the names of our friends who have just passed away in the chapel by the sea...we remember.....

Next morning we were motoring up the Mystic River to Mystic Seaport, a working museum, with two opening bridges along the way .

The staff were surprised to have a yacht turn up at this time of the year but were able to give us a cheap rate to tie up as the power and water have been turned off for the winter. It used to be free for 2 nights for foreign flagged boats but that was 20 years ago. Still, it's such a fun place to visit and Terry hadn't been here before. We have had 2 sunny days poking around enjoying the exhibitions but today we are having a bit of snow. We were going to fuel up and get a few miles closer to New York but have sat by the heater having a lazy day instead. Expecting -8 tonight!!!!

One plus of being here now is that the staff have time to chat and we were lucky to be given a tour of the hundreds of boats that are stored away, along with old engines, boat plans and a huge library. It is an amazing collection from walrus skin kayaks, ice yachts, Chris crafts to small yachts, all in the original condition they were donated in.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and we will continue on our way to New York where we will spend a few days walking the streets and maybe seeing a show before taking a big leap south. Meanwhile , it's time for a rum and coke before we start cooking.