By Sahara

Now before we get to the blog, I would just like to say: Happy Thanksgivukkah!!!! Be very careful how you pronounce this word. Don’t be like me, and try to say it in front of family members. You will not get anything for Christmas. Anyway, it is being called this because for the first time in 100 years Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah overlap.

Now, to get to the blog. This morning was a cleaning day, which means that after eating a breakfast of muffins, mom went and to...

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By Sahara

Yesterday we got up and headed off to explore the town, after looking at the map and memorizing where all the chocolate shops were! The first place we went to was the fort, Fort Castillo De San Marcos. It was ruled by the Spanish when they first came to America, built in the 1500’s, and was used by different groups of people all the way up to the 1900’s.  It was fairly large for that time, and had a lot of cannons. 
 
 

After the fort, we headed down the street that had all the...

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St Augustine
Mile Marker 780

                We got up early this morning. Definition of early is 6 in the morning. But, I guess it was necessary to get to the marina before dark. Maybe.  Anyway, the morning was pretty uneventful, consisting of breakfast, school work, and reading. Oh yes, and we got to Florida sometime around 10:30 or so, and celebrated by eating an orange… or three...  It was raining during the morning and was really yucky and humid and why am I going on about the boring ...

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By Devon
Yesterday when we were walking down a beach I spotted a weird blue thing and thought it was a shell. I almost picked it up but I noticed that it was a jellyfish. I was really freaked out because well,,, it was a jellyfish but it was blue. I picked up a stick and started scraping the sand off and it started to look like a man o' war jellyfish, so we all started looking at it and suggesting types of jellyfish it could be. So we decided on the man o' war jellyfish and kept walking. But l...
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By Sahara

                Today was the complete opposite of yesterday, as it was cold and had 30 knot gust winds. So when mom made us very yummy muffins-in case you haven’t noticed, we looove our muffins- we decided to go back to the island and explore the woods. The woods were very cool, with the Spanish moss and huge old trees and the palm shrubberies, and looked like it would be perfect for a Halloween party or celebration.

This island was said to have 3 types of poisonous snaked- no...

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By Sahara

Yesterday we set off in the amazingly snazzy dinghy to go to the island. Since it was warm and practically no wind at all, we decided it was going to be a beach day. To get to the beach you had to walk through a maritime forest, which consisted mostly of live oak and small palm shrub type things and Spanish beards. Then you had to walk over the dunes-they didn’t let you walk on the dunes for fear of erosion-, and then you got to the beach. It wasn’t a very inhabited beach; we o...

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Nov 22
We were delayed a day waiting at St. Simons island for 2 engine parts.  An oil pressure sensor for the main engine and a water sensor relay for the generator.  The generator had stopped working a few months ago when the water impeller self destructed.  Most likely from the generator sitting in the boat for a year waiting for the work to be finished around it.  The special rubber impellers do not like to get dried out, and ours was most likely dry.  The generator automatically shuts down...
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By Sahara

Let’s see, how to make this day interesting to all you people reading this.  We started the day-I think all my entries start like this- by waking up, slowly making ourselves get out of bed, speeding up dramatically when you hear mom is making muffins, and then eating said muffins.  Which were fantastic, by the way. Chocolate chips, yummy yummy. Argh, I think I just creeped out every sane person reading this. So to carry on, we then all went and took showers. I think I have been awa...

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Nov 20
St. Simons Island Georgia.

We did a short hop today, as we didn't get a great nights sleep.  A very beautiful island, but we have cloudy, rainy, cold weather.  So we went to see Thor.  Never mess with a man with a hammer.  We might try and stop by here again on the way back north.  We are at a marina tonight to help catch up on sleep.  Florida is only 80 miles away!!  We could do it in one day, but will probably do it in 2.  High tide is at 11 tomorrow, perfect for us.  High water all da...
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Nov 19th 
We are getting south!!  Although the Canadian weather is following us.  We are trying to out run it, but that is hard at only 7 knots.  It seems the current is always against us, sometimes up to 2 knots. Most of the locals talk about the unusual cold, however, it is still in the teens (Celsius).  We are also trying to avoid the cold fronts that come across the country.  The bring high winds that make anchoring unpleasant and the waves rough.  We had 20 knot winds today with gusts up ...
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Nov 18
We finally caught some shrimp.  Maybe enough for a tiny cocktail.....with little shrimp.  BUT WE CAUGHT SHRIMP !!

And a bunch of other fish as well.  Devon and I rowed up a little creek, battling the bugs and mud, and using a throw net caught some shrimp.  There were thousands of tiny shrimp that went right through the net, but a few bigger ones.  We also caught a big Stripped mullet.  We were as surprised to catch it as well as it was to be caught (we let it go later).  We also nabbed a...
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We are now Half way between the Chesapeake bay and Miami (Biscayne Cay..where we will cross over).
so we Celebrated with some Mini Pies.  We make regular pie dough and pre cooked it in a muffin tin to make mini pie shells.  Then filled them with a precooked Bumble berry pie filling (strawberry, blue berry, and Raspberry).  They were great!

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We are some where south of Charleston SC with no lights to be scene.  The stars are AMAZING.

We dined the last two days on Soup.  what else does one make when it is cold?  Yesterday was creamy chicken noodle soup and tonight it is Creme potato and ham soup with fresh french bread.  Yum.  And also is a picture of the biscuits from the other day.

We are not going hungry on this trip.!

Tara driving on the c...
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 November 12 and 13th 

 

Yesterday when we arrived at Charleston, it was really hot and was after a long day of traveling and we were pretty tired, but we still explored the town and the first place we went to was the hotel. We went to the hotel because there was a trolley there so we could go into the town. The first place we went to was the fudge store (where they make fudge and you can watch them do it, yaay!) and so we got some fudge and went on. After the fudge we didn’t really go anyw...

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Charleston, South Carolina, Nov 12

Yesterday we got to Charleston around 1 in the afternoon. We had to dock somewhere as there were reports for bad weather that night and today. (20-30 knot winds, really cold). So when we got all tied up, we decided to head into town and look around. We had to take a shuttle bus into town, as it was far away and over a massive bridge. So when we got into downtown, the first shop when we got off was the Fudgery, (Now my computer is being stupid and saying that ...

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Nov 8,9,10th.
Wilmington North Carolina to Charleston South Carolina.

We went for 3 days straight on the ICW out of Wilmington North Carolina in an effort to get some distance south.  We knew a big cold front was coming, and the further we could get south the better.  We saw a few dolphins as well as watched the trees change and the spanish moss start to hang on the trees.  We have started to hear Shrimp around the boat.  There is some sort of shrimp that makes a "Snap,Crackle, Pop" sound just ...
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We got to Wrightsville two days ago. On our first day, we didn’t do much as we got in later in the afternoon. Well, we did go to the Bluewater restaurant, which serves fresh seafood, and was really good!!  The next day we met with a friend, who was really awesome and brought cookies!!!!!!! This was a working day, when we just fixed up or put on some stuff, like lights and engine oil. For diner, we had fresh caught shrimp, which you can catch all around here, and yellow fin tuna. For those w...
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ICW Swan Point, New River Inlet Nov. 06

 Today was not the most exciting day, just more marshes and canals and bridges. For the first half of the day it rained on and off, and was very foggy out. The most excitement in the morning was the first bridge, where mom freaked out about height issues. But, like I told her, you find out if you are too high for the bridge fairly quickly. We did see dolphins heading out of Beaufort, but briefly.   Hmmm... Now I’m trying to remember what else we did,...

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We traveled from mile marker 135 (Belhaven) to Mile marker 205, Beaufort, today.  Winds were 15-20 knots for most of the trip, but subsided at the most open water part!!!  The wind was helpfull today.  It was a North east wind that pushed along in the Neuse river.  With an early start, 6:30, we were able to have our anchor set by 4:00 and go exploring and see some wild horses!!!  Beaufort is a very busy marine area.  Commercial fishing and easy access to the ocean with well protected ports ma...
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We took a short 8 mile trip today from our peaceful anchor last night to Belhaven North Carolina.  The Night was so calm, not what was foretasted.  Another boat we have been cruising with was anchored at the other end of the Canal and had 30 knot winds!!!  We had 30 knot winds on the way here, but the river is narrow and although windy, it was not rough.  We got the auto pilot fixed (well.....ok, not fixed, but re corrected the pilot error of button pushing and reset the correct settings so n...
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Belhaven Memorial Museum

 

Today we went to the Belhaven Memorial Museum, as it was a cold windy day and we had nothing better to do. The entire museum is a collection of some kooky lady, though it’s actually very interesting. She collected EVERYTHING. Literally. But before I tell you about that, I’ll give you some history. This lady, who people called Mrs.Why, collected for 70 years. She died at age 93 in 1962, which was old for that time. Though I think she could have done something bet...
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Belhaven memorial museum

When we arrived at Belhaven, we went to the museum. At first we thought it was a normal museum, but after we got inside it was about a really insane woman who collected nearly everything. But what I really liked was the 45 pound German machine gun that was in World War 1, the 2 headed pig, the Cyclops pig, the eight-legged pig and a lot of other things. Some other cools things like a whale skull and anchor from a British warship from the early 1800s (probably 2-3 hundr...

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Today we crossed the Albemarle sound in some rough conditions.  The forcast for "1-2 foot waves" was a little off.  The winds were 15-20 knots, out of the Northwest.  Gusts up to 25. (50 km or 28 miles). We had lots of company on the trip.  The sound and then the Alligator river are VERY SHALLOW.  A body of water that is 15 miles across, but i couldn't find a depth greater than 15 feet on the map.  And the river was only 9 feet deep.  This makes the waves stand up straight!  So we were shaken...
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We got out of the Chesapeake bay finally.  We delayed one extra day because of the high winds, that was the Norfolk day.  We left at 7:00 in the morning to get a good start on the day so we would have plenty of time to dock before dark. The ICW, or Inner Coastal Water way (A.K.A. the big ditch) can take us all the way around Florida to the Mississippi river if we wanted to go that way.

We had to go under 5 or 6 bridges that we had to wait to open, plus the one lock.  No very high, just 2 feet....
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Nov 1st

We spent the day seeing some of the attractions in Norfolk.  We went to the USS Wisconsin, and Iowa Class battle ship that was retired not too long ago.  It last served in the Iraq war.  Some cool facts, the 16 inch guns could shoot a 2,000 lb bomb over 20 miles, and in later years had Tomahawk missile that could shoot 1,200 miles.  To put that in perspective, from Norfolk VA where it is now, it could hit Toronto.
 
Big guns and missile launchers

Around town there are a bunch of mermaid ...
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October 31st.
Norfolk is an old town that has been so built up in the last 100 years, it is hard to find the "old town".  There are huge shipping lanes going right in behind the city (away from the ocean side).  Giant tankers, military ships, aircraft carriers, battle ships, etc... are all traveling in the little river way.  Along with a 1-2 knot current and not much room.  Then the constant calls by the Navy to boat that are too close to the Navy ships.  Quite a busy place there.

Here are some...
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October 31st,

Today we got an early start heading to Norfolk, as the reports were for 30-40 knot winds today. Mom and Dad began the day with pulling up the anchor and starting the engine… which are loud… at 7:00 in the morning.  Needless to say it woke Devon and I up.  So that was how our uneventful day started.  Now I will skip to the part where it got exciting. We were just on the edge of Norfolk, in the beginning of the afternoon, and admiring the giant tanker heading our direction.  Mo...

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October 30th we were motoring out of Deltaville and we were pretty much the only ones out. Suddenly, there was a really loud BA-BANG!! And I thought that the propane exploded or we were getting shot at. Since it was behind us, I ran down and checked the aft cabin but there was no damage. So I went back up, and a bit later there was a radio call that said it was the "sound of freedom" (a fighter jet going faster than the speed of sound.) So we were all relieved that no damage has been done to ...

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October 29th
We stopped in Deltaville, at the Deltaville Marina.  If you have access to nautical charts, or perhaps zoom in on Google earth, the entrance is CRAZY.  We touched ground a few times on the way in and out.  Great for motor boats, not so great for Sailboats.  Marina had a courtesy car that we used to go pick up our parts and then took the time to do a few more repairs and upgrades.  Finished the generator and installed LED spreader lights.  Very bright for very little power.  Change...
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Oct 28th
We are finally saying good by to Reedville.  Just before we left, we invested in a new camera with some zoom capability.  Our other cameras are not so good at getting pictures of far away things.  This has a 40x optical zoom.  Our first set of pictures was of the monster that lives out in front of the Haas house on Owens pond. (no longer a pond, just another inlet on the Chesapeake).  Can you tell what it is?
 
A sea otter.  

Here are some pictures from the dock at the perfect house.  My...
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