Calabash Creek Anchorage anxiety

Diann and I have made good progress as we have traveled from St. Augustine Florida to Myrtle Beach South Carolina.  Travel days, left,  are just four- until we make it back to New Bern. Yesterday we pulled off the Georgetown Landing Docks at 6:30AM and made it to Calabash Creek anchorage at north Myrtle Beach.   After setting out 100 feet …

Cumberland Island beach walk

After touring the Dungeness grounds, we headed to the beach.  It is a 6/10s mile sandy walk just to get to the beach. Much  of the dune area sand is squishy walking.  It was the most remote of all beach walks I’ve ever experienced.  We met a husband ,wife, and their two kids- along the 1.28 miles until the SeaCamp …

Dungeness at Cumberland Island

Thomas Carnegie was Andrew’s younger brother.  Thomas did a fine job of financial management of their steel empire.  Thomas died at age 43.  His wife, Lucy, was a sharp business woman and added wealth to her family’s holdings.  She died in 1916.  The house was all but abandoned in 1925 and burned in 1959.  What a place the property had …

Cumberland Island arrival and main trail

Our catamaran YachtaFun had taken us passed Cumberland Island GA on three previous legs- south in 2014; north in 2015; and south in 2018.  Now was past time to stop and see this historic treasure of a National Park. Best known for Dungeness, the home of steel magnate Thomas Carnegie- the property is little known and so few folks visit. …

Melbourne FL anchorage basin

We arrived on schedule for the City Marina in Vero Beach.  After a $17 Lyft ride back from Walmart we took showers and went to Riverside Café’ for dinner.  The next morning YachtaFun had an oil change and left Vero Beach for Melbourne. A weather system in the Texas / Louisiana area was to impact Florida weather.  It began as …

Boat Project- dinghy chap repair

Yesterday Diann spent the day with Sunbrella sewing projects- making new items; repairing older items; and shortening a cockpit gear bag. This morning she is removing seam threads in preparation for replacing worn and torn fabric on the sides of our dinghy’s protective chaps.  UV radiation takes its toll on rubber.  The chaps reduce the rate of ultimate failure of …

Avoiding weekend boaters in Florida

Every waterway community has inexperienced and/or rude boat drivers.  “What’s a right of way”, they may ask.  Or they may say to friends on board, “big wakes give small boats a challenge- so let’s blast by ‘em.”   Florida has many people and many boats.  The amount of boat traffic is dense in areas such as Hollywood, Jupiter Inlet, Stuart, and …

Lake Sylvia dinghy landing

Lake Sylvia, in Ft. Lauderdale is just off the ICW.  There isn’t a dinghy landing spot- so you need to go elsewhere to go ashore.  The most direct route is to go under West Lake Drive, which  has bridges with very low clearances.  At high tide there is just enough room for a dinghy trip under the concrete spans.  We’re …

Lake Sylvia at Ft. Lauderdale

We were early to arrive at Lake Sylvia on Thursday.  Since weekend travelers, and local folks, were few- we were able to pick an anchor spot close to our one back in February.  Hopefully holding will be as good as then. The “lake” is close to marinas and so gaining fuel via 5 gallon jerry-jugs is pretty easy.  The process …

Smooth Ocean Water

Having turned tail on Sunday from heavy seas at Miami’s Governors Cut- we returned to Biscayne Bay to wait for smoother conditions for heading north.  The wait was worth it.  Thursday morning Biscayne Bay was almost glasslike.  No time during our 2015 / 2019 visits (totaling 3+ months) did we have such smooth conditions.  Generally there is always some chop, …