Northern Phoenix blog

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 day, no need to worry about shallow water.

Great place for Canadians to spend the winter.!!!
Devon did some Helm Work today.
And for the first time we made GRITS!!  Gotta love those grits.  Hummm, just what to eat with them?

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 to 30+.

This rough water was created by a 30 knot wind blowing one direction, ocean swells coming in the sound from a different direction, and the currents of 2 different rivers meeting and flowing out into the ocean.  Add in a few big power boats that zipped by and the waves are just crazy.  Washing machine type affect. We were only in it for 30 minutes or so.  This picture is looking out into the ocean as we rounded a point.  It looks like we are in the middle of no where, but land is in every direction except this one. (trying to make the picture more dramatic, as the ocean is still 3 miles away here).  Often times we are following dug canals through the rivers with little wiggle room .  At low tide, some places are so shallow that we can walk 400 yards on mud to shore.  And in some places we have to wait for high tide to get through, such as the "Mud River".  Aptly named.  Or Hell Gate.  Also very shallow, only 4 -5 feet at low tide.  But with the 8 foot tides, everything is good at high tide.
However, in one of the small water waves, we had dolphin playing in our wake and Sahara got one of them on film jumping next to the boat.  Link to our you tube video here.

One of the interesting things here is the big tide they have.  Over 8 feet on a full moon tide, as we just had.  Closer to just 7.5 feet on a regular tide.  This creates fast moving currents moving through this low country marsh area.  It is hard to predict which direction the current is going as there are a few factors that affect them.  Canals and "rivers" connect different sounds....that each have high tides at different times.  Wind can also drive current up a bay or sound and push water through the cuts as well. So far Tara is about 3 for 25 at predicting which way the current is going, and she is winning the contest!
You can see the high water mark on the poles. The little boat is tied up to a "Floating" dock that rides up and down the poles.  The ramp is hinged, so as the tide goes up, it moves with it.  Most boat are on "Lift docks", as the boat on the right, you are looking at the stern end of the boat.

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 record breaking flounder....just a fluke.

We made a shrimp Alfredo sauce...well an Alfredo sauce with vegetables as filler and a few shrimp.

 

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!

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 cold day.  With all the sides up, the cockpit was like a mini green house.  So Tara is in her T shirt, the cockpit is nice and warm, but outside it is only 55 degrees.....about 10 Celsius.

 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 anywhere and we just walked around until we went out for dinner, the restaurant was called Hymans Seafood. It was a really good place and I ordered shrimp and grits. So after that we went back to the boat and went to bed.    
                                                                                                                                                                          The next day we woke up and it was really cold and I had to snuggle up in my scouty blanket to stay warm, after we got set up we headed out to explore the town and once again… we went to the fudge store and got 4 pieces of fudge (that’s a lot of fudge) and we went to some museums and dungeons (ya, dungeons) and that took up most of the day. Some things that I learned at some places is that they did a lot of slaving and their dungeons are really creepy. I also learned some things about the civil war that were pretty cool. After that we managed to get some wings and nachos at a store. On the way back, we took some looks at a couple war ships from World War 2 including an aircraft carrier, a frigate (small battleship) and a submarine, pretty cool stuff! And so… that’s about it at this place and we are going to head out tomorrow and the South
  

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 fudgery is not a real word. What does it know) and it smelled so good that we had to go in to get a piece… which was really good too. Then after our very energizing fudge, we headed off to the book store (we kind of prioritized our sightseeing a bit). This was the time that everyone in downtown Charleston decided to go running, and we had to fight our way through. Devon almost walked into one- these runners will not stop for anything except red lights and fire trucks… and maybe trees. So we finally got to the store- with no casualties- we browsed for about an hour. Though this book store sucked as I could not find the book series I wanted! And since all this nothing made us hungry, we headed back out into the sea of marathonies and tried to find a somewhat decent restaurant. We decided the best one was the one with a line outside of it, of course. It was a seafood restaurant called Hayman’s Seafood, which specialized in... seafood. It was one of the best seafood restaurant I’ve ever been to, I got tuna, dad got flounder (a whole flounder, literally), Devon got shrimp, and mom got this dish that had enough food to feed Africa. It consisted of crawfish, clams, shrimp, sausage, and corn. After dinner, we had to go out and wait for the bus to come pick us up, and brave the windy bridge. It was starting to get windy, and this bus was 20 years old, so it sounded like it was going to explode at any minute. However, we managed to get back to the marina without anyone getting sued, and then went to bed as seafood makes you tired.

 

Charleston South Carolina, Nov 13.

 

It was so cold when we got up, we could see our breath in the air. And dad said he was frozen to his bed. Though he eventually got up and made us biscuits. Then we went out to brave the wind.. again.. and head back into town to visit some more places. We went to the Confederate museum (Confederates were the people in the south of America during the civil war, Unions in the north), the Exchange Building and Dungeon (more civil war and revolutionary war stuff), and the Old Slave Mart (about the slavery). They were all interesting in different ways: the Confederate had swords, the Exchange had a dungeon, and the Slave Mart was both interesting and sad. Though I still can’t believe that the south thought that slavery was a good thing to do, they must have twisted minds. At the Dungeon, it was from the time when Britain still controlled America, and they kept pirates in the jail. When Britain’s took over the town, the people of Charleston hid all their ammunition-gunpowder, 50,000 pounds of it- in a hole in the dungeon. And the two years that Britain controlled the town, no one found it. Then when the war was over, they came back and dug up the 40,000 pounds that were still usable. After the museums, we were starting to get hungry, so we went to a wings place called Sticky Fingers. It was also very awesome, and with their 5 signature sauces that they had out for us to use- I dumped the hot sauce on the floor- it was even better. Not to mention the giant nacho plate they brought out as well. When we were finished, we headed back to the boat, with a short side stop to take some pictures of the aircraft carrier Yorktown, where we find me writing this scarily long blog post. Oh well.
 
 
Proof it is usually warm here, blooming flowers

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 under the hull.  Light enough that you don't realize it is there until you go to sleep, or sit very quiet.  Apparently it is something to do with the claws closing at high speeds.(ABC story covers it here). 

Devon caught a large turtle in a net along a dock and we have scene lots of birds.  Bald eagles, osprey, pelicans, herons, and many others.  Dolphin have occasionally been around the boat, however we have not been too close to the ocean for a while.

The current has almost always been against us.  Funny how that happens, 2.5 knots at some times.  It is quite depressing, when at the end of the day of traveling 50 miles, you realize you traveled 65 miles through the water....but only 50 over land.

Last night we had the cold front come through as we were anchored in Charleston South Carolina.  Winds got up to 40 knots....about 45 mph and 75 km/h.  If we had been at anchor, I don't think I would have slept.  The constant worry about the anchor dragging.  We put out a double set of dock lines as a "Sleep Security".  It is so much easier to go to sleep knowing that there will be no chance (or just a slim chance, but a lot of noise before it gets bad) of something bad happening.  So other than a little noise, then some really crazy cold weather, we got a good night sleep.  Now, for the Canadians reading this, it was not cold at all.  It was like a spring day.  It got down to 8 degrees...at night.  But for the southern folks around here, that is mighty darn cold.  Remember, there are palm trees around here (well, trees in that family).

We explored the city a bit and we went to some overpriced history museums as part of the kids "U.S. History" class.  Before we left on this trip, they both got duel citizenship.  So it is only appropriate they learn american history.  And it is great while traveling down the East cost.  There is so much to actually see to help make it feel real.  We saw the fort where the first shots of the Civil war were fought at Fort Sumter. 

And being in the south, we made some biscuits.  Will eventually make some grits. 

Devon's turtle and strange shaped blue house.
 

Eagles in the trees.  There were many to watch.
 
Spanish Moss in the trees.  and A strange place to find this three masted ship.  I think it was aground.

 
Pelican Beach.  Almost ran aground looking at this.   

A School Boat.  This is for picking up kids who live on the ICW water ways.  It was quite swampy in the area and few roads.  "Go wait at the end of the dock for the school boat".
 

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 who don’t know what that is, it’s a red-fleshed fish, meaning it’s meatier than the flaky white flesh fish-almost steak like- and can get up to 400 pounds! Which is still small compared to Bluefin tuna, which can get up to 1500 pounds. Today we went to the beach, and walked all the way down to my grandparents resort, Shell Island. It was a 3 hour trip there and back. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, which was also really good! After that, we went and got wetsuits on to go swimming. The beach was right off the Atlantic, so it was very salty and rough.  You had to get past the breakers to get to the water where the waves were still taller than you, but at least you didn’t get pounded. We did see some groups of dolphins, and a one legged bird, and a bird with a broken wing, and a bird that looked like a running potato. And the group of guys with no pants on, just speedo type things. And no shirt either… but they were wearing ties!!! There were many surfers too, and it was funny to see them fall. Surfing is really big around here... They even ride bikes to the beach with their boards strapped on to the back! We decided that we would like to try to surf one day, though mom shouldn’t even attempt, as she would never even make it onto the board, much less surf.