St. Augustine YC Commodores Race

Well, we've been here for a week and have been living ashore at Jay and Pegg's house.  Of course we've done a little tweaking and all aboard, including Dan installing a salt water spigot at the sink for Bahamas conservation of fresh.  Today Jay signed us up to race in the SAYC Commodore's Race.  We didn't start all that well, as we were still on the way out when the gun went off, so we started last.  We ended up third overall, and we found out our corrected time at the trophy dinner this evening - - -we were still 3rd overall!   We ended up with 5 aboard.   Dan, Martha and Jay, of course, and two passengers who wanted to see what a race was like.  Both proved to be helpful and a pleasant addition.  It was a cruising class race, so we didn't have to worry about spinnakers (which we don't even have aboard!).  The course was a six mile triangle, with relatively inconsistent winds, but we had a great time, especially as we were able to pass several of the boats.  Another highlight of the week was getting to watch the Friday evening Endeavor shuttle launch from the fishing pier in Salt Run, here in St. Augustine.  Quite an impressive sight.  ~~~_/)~~~D&M

Endeavor lights up the sky as it lifts off

Quite a sight! Of course the pix don't do it justice, it was really dramatic seeing the glow in the sky and then seeing the glow of the ship all the way up and past the moon!

The crew of Brunelle with their trophy at the St. Augustine YC trophy dinner

Delagal Creek in GA to St. Augustine, FL

Hi,
We left Delagal Creek yesterday in daylight but the sun wasn't up yet. We had an easy ride out to the ocean on the Vernon River in spite of there being many shallow areas. With the magic and wonderful GPS we plugged in the ocean buoy outside of St. Augustine. Before long we were worried that we were going to get here too soon...we were not anxious to come in the inlet and into Salt Run in the dark. We sailed with just the jib all day and night averaging 5 knots which was fine because at that rate the GPS was saying we would get to the St. Augustine buoy at 6:30...and that's what happened!!
Saw several porpoises yesterday including one that came out of the water completely! None of them said get the camera ready, they just did it. The gibbous moon was with us for most of the night and right after it set over Jacksonville, I saw a shooting star. A beautiful night to be on the ocean.
Jay and Pegg met us at the mooring Jay had rigged this morning and as I write they are bringing out breakfast burritos! There probably won't be daily updates for awhile, as the boat is happily moored here in Salt Run for a couple of weeks. ~~~(\_~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

Hmmm! Looks like we had a night visitor (a night heron perhaps?!)

Buoy buddies! Just what is the pecking order here?

Sunset - - -not to be confused with - - - -

SUNRISE

First leg completed, here we are with the St. Augustine lighthouse behind us.

Thunderbolt to Delegal Creek, Skidaway Is., GA

Short trip today, even shorter track because the GPS shut down for some reason about 10:30 and I had to restart everything. We saw an eagle, a lost Monarch butterfly and a southern version of Andiamo! (homeport Savannah). Did you know that "Moon River" the song (lyrics by Johnny Mercer) has an inlet named after it? Mercer is from Savannah and the powers that be chose to name an inlet (which we passed today) Moon River! We tied up at the Delegal Marina at 1:00 and waited for the McCloskeys (Dawn Zephyr - a 51' fast trawler) who are neighbors from Spring Grove. I cooked dinner for us all and we enjoyed catching up with them. We plan to head off early tomorrow (have to leave before the ebbing midtide to make it over the 4 ft. spot at the entrance to the creek) and head offshore - - - next stop St. Augustine!~~~(\_~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

CCYC folks - - -we did a double take when we saw this Catalina 440 (but
homeport was Savannah.)

YUP, (kids) it's an eagle.

Dawn Zephyr and Brunelle (both from Spring Grove, PA) at the end of
the dock, Delegal Creek, Skidaway Island, GA.

Hilton Head to Thunderbolt (Savannah)

The sun came out! A very easy trip from HH to Savannah. A light breeze - - not enough to roll out the jib. We arrived at the marina at noon and relaxed until Cousin Steve Bliss, his wife Anna and their sons, Aidan and Griffin showed up. The boys enjoyed checking out our "home" and after a short drink they took us to a great BBQ place for dinner. It was a little dark to see much of Savannah, but we certainly enjoyed the visit. ~~~(\_~~~D&M
GoogleEarth track file

Here we are in Savannah at Thunderbolt Marina, among many mega yachts
(and shrimp boats.)

More mega yachts and spanish moss.

B&B Seafood to Hilton Head

Hi!
What a contrast, our stop last night was in the lowest of the "low country" of SC and tonight we are in the Hilton Head. The trip here was very similar to yesterday with winding, sinuous waterways cutting through the marshes of SC. We have spotted several porpoises every day since we entered the Carolinas. They just lazily make their way through rivers and creeks. It was gray and drizzly most of the day, but began to break up as we arrived at Palmetto Bay Marina, up Broad Creek on Hilton Head. We tied up at 3:00 and did a little cleaning up of the boat before being picked up by Dave and Nan Ames (Nan is Kate Pennington's sister) who took us on a tour of the island and then back to their home in Long Cove, a development that Dave and his partner developed. They graciously let us use their shower and laundry before taking us out to a local Italian place that had GREAT food. We are back aboard, sated, washed and laundered! ~~~(\_~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

A not so useful channel marker in SC.

Just one of the many porpoises who like to play around us.

Charleston to B & B Seafood, SC

BLUE skies above!! We didn't have signal last night to write, but we did have TV and watched the monumental change to our country (Dan hopes)! We spent a gray, brisk, windy day winding through the marshes of SC, never knowing when the currents would be with us or against us. We had a blustery NW wind behind us, so we were able to roll out the jib and enjoy a boost. We did have to jibe several times as our path wasn't very straight! We decided to go off the ICW track at Mile 513 and headed up the Ashepoo River to Mosquito Creek where we tied up to the B&B Seafood's ($25/night) floating dock. We were joined by a Nonsuch 30 from Hamilton, ONT who invited us over for drinks. We both had gone up to the small shack at the head of the dock where we bought a pound of FRESH shrimp. The shrimp boat tied to the pier had just returned at 2PM. We had a delicious shrimp dish from my favorite cookbook, FEAST AFLOAT. I was actually speaking metaphorically at the beginning of this post, it is actually very gray and misting heavily as we head off on our way to Hilton Head Island. ~~~(\_~~~D&M
Google Earth track file


Sunpenny (a Gulfstar 44) and pelicans escorted us out of Charleston on
our way to a 9:00 bridge as we headed south.

This short cut created a U-turn as we wound our way through the marshes.

Our home for the night.

Charleston lay day

Hi,  I didn't turn the gps on today, because the only traveling we did today was from the gas dock where they put us last night into a slip!  Dan did get the oil changed, I did some laundry and we walked around town after a very good lunch at the Noisy Oyster.  We also did a little restocking at Harris Teeters, a very fancy grocery store.  We were invited to cocktails aboard Sunpenny (the Beattie's from Chambersburg, PA) at 5:30 and just returned to Brunelle a few minutes ago(9:50)!  Another cruising couple was also there (Wind Chaser), and the discussions were lively and informative, as we are the neophytes on this ICW stuff.  Lots of fun!  The only photo is from our walk today of a very interesting Charleston tradition...  We hope to head out tomorrow, but not outside as the weather is still a little wild offshore.  ~~~(\_~~~D&M

"Does you chewing gum lose it's flavor on the phone pole overnight...?"