Wow, what a year!

Christmas 2009 Port St Joe, Florida

Fall colours, Natchez Trace, Alabama.

Mobile Bay, Alabama.

In the past year we have travelled over 5,000 miles by boat and that's a long way at 7 knots an hour. We have seen 20 states, two Canadian provinces, 29 major cities, six lakes, seven major rivers and hundreds of locks.

Our adventures have been recorded this week by Despina Williams, a reporter for The Star, Port St Joe, Florida. http://www.starfl.com/news/loop-19840-great-joe.html

Red Right Returning

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We have enjoyed the trip from Chicago, Illinois, to Mobile, Alabama. In the past three months we have travelled 1,300 miles on rivers and canals. We will remember the varied terrain, locks and docks, the spectacular fall colours and fabulous small town hospitality, barges, bald eagles and beautiful backwater anchorages.

When I asked Coast Guard Boating instructor, Peter Marshall, for advice on navigating our way around the ‘America’s Great Loop’, he said “just remember ‘Red Right Returning’ and you’ll be fine. You can’t get lost.” I was so comforted by this piece of information that I went away reciting it to myself but with no real idea of how it was going to save us. Over the past year the ‘Red Right Returning’ rule has become the one that has guided us more than anything else. It refers to the red buoys that mark the right-hand side of the channel as you proceed upstream and home into any port. Simple! Until you learn that when going south on the Tenessee River towards the Gulf Goast you are actually going ‘up’ river as the current runs south to north. To compound the complications of river navigation, significant points of interest are referred to as being on the left descending bank (LDB) or right descending bank (RDB). Which makes a lot of sense as you fly down the Mississippi river going south as the LDB is on your left. However, turn the corner onto the Ohio river where you go ‘up’ river from west to east, and you will find that the left descending bank is now on your right. Confused!?! Well, it’s not too bad when you have time to think about it. For the most part, we have river navigation under control.

Controlling the weather is a different matter. Hurricane Ida brought heavy rain to the Alabama area and even though Ida was downgraded to a tropical storm, it managed to drop so much rain in the Tombigbee catchment area that river levels rose by 27 feet and the current was clocked at 8 knots. Boaters were advised to stay off the river for a week. We were fortunate to be north of the bad weather and able to stay in a safe anchorage in historic downtown Columbus, Mississippi, where we had plenty to keep us amused. We also had a week in Demopolis, Alabama, while we waited for the backlog of boats to clear from the anchorages downriver from us.

There is a famous incident that took place in this area in 1979 that makes boaters heed the warnings. See the following report and then have a look at the photos on the website below .

Cahaba Incident
On April 28, 1979, a tugboat named M/V Cahaba was on the Tombigbee near Demoplolis, Alabama. The tugboat was attempting to guide 2 coal barges under a flooded side-span of the old Rooster Bridge (removed years later), but the flood current was too strong. The tug and barges approached the drawbridge-section, which failed to re-open fast enough while the river was near flood stage (drawbridges must close & re-open to allow waiting traffic to cross). The fast currents pinned the craft, starboard side, against the bridge in high waters. The force was so dramatic that it pulled the boat downward, tilting it beneath the bridge, and fully submerging it in the river. The underwater pressure blew out a port-side window in the pilot house, which began filling with water, while the captain remained at the helm. However, soon, the tugboat emerged out the other side of the bridge, and righted itself, with water pouring from the doorways and decks. One of the 2 main ventilator funnels had tilted to the center, but one engine was still running, to steer/anchor the tugboat in a flooded cornfield. Another downstream tugboat, M/V Tallapoosa rescued the captain and all 3 crew members, with the pilot, then secured the 2 barges of coal. The barges were later towed to Mobile by the same company's towboat M/V Mauvilla.
Scroll down to see the photos at UNDER ACHIEVER:

http://cargolaw.com/2002nightmare_towboat.html

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Lubberly

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The Upper Mississippi.

We enjoyed a few days strolling around the antique stores of Grafton and the hospitality of the Loading Dock Pub on the Illinois River before turning on to the Mississippi River for the next stage of our journey south. The limestone cliffs along the Mississippi gleamed under a clear sunny sky.

The arch of St Louis, Illinois.

Soon, we had to be sure to take the Chain of Rocks Canal rather than stay on the main channel which goes down a set of rapids. Even so, we hit 10.6 knots per hour as we turned the bend towards the canal. We tried to stop for a visit in St Louis but, after getting a line onto a barge tethered in the river, decided the river was just too wild and the barge too exposed. Whole logs (ie. entire tree trunks) swept past our hull. We were pleased to pull into the relative safety of Hoppies Marina late in the day, instead.

Flotilla in the morning mist.

Hoppies is a favourite stop for boats on the Great Loop. We found new friends and got re-acquainted with others that we had met earlier. We soon formed a flotilla that would stick together for many days on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. On the Mississpippi we found adequate anchorages and enjoyed the companionship on a stretch that would otherwise have been challenging and rather lonely. Swirling whirlpools spun away from the hull as we hurtled along with our speed hitting over 11 knots instead of the seven that we usually travel at.

Dams and weirs are a personal fear of mine. They are one of those things that have caused me concern in the middle of the night over many years of river boat travel. Therefore, it seemed like an alarming prospect to hear that the wickets were down on the Ohio River. The water level was high and traffic was being diverted away from the locks and directly over the top of the dams. This manifested itself in the form of turbulent waters and a lubberly reaction from the boat. We danced about in slow motion with the Ohio River current opposing us. Pearl handled the conditions in the dependable way that we have come to rely on.

After just two days on the Ohio we had the opportunity of turning up into the Tennessee River and the Kentucky Lakes area. We have since taken root at the Green Turtle Bay Marina on the 'Land Between the Lakes' nature reserve. We have taken on the pace of small town Kentucky, enjoyed the comforts of marina life and soaked up the luxury of the fitness centre, pool, saunas, tennis courts, courtesy cars, and complimentary coffees. Not to mention, the fact that Alice and Lloyd have had their heads down, sitting exams and finishing off their school work for the year.

Flying Fish

The next stage of our journey takes us down to the Gulf Coast via the Illinois, Upper Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. Along the Illinois we have stopped in the small towns of Joliet, Ottawa, Beardstown and Grafton. We visited the Old City Hall of Beardstown and Lloyd sat in the judge’s seat in the courtroom where Abe Lincoln practiced as a Lawyer in the late 1850s. Lloyd also tried the bunks for size in the jailhouse in the basement. He preferred the upstairs accommodation more.

At the end of our day in Beardstown we moved on as we only had 22 miles to the next anchorage. It was busy on the water and we had to negotiate a lot of barge traffic. It was dark when we pulled into McGee Creek. As we edged forward into the creek we startled the fish and a 25inch long Asian Carp leapt out of the water and straight into the pilothouse where it flapped wildly. Alice screamed and jumped onto the dashboard. John filletted the fish on the spot. When the excitement had died down and Alice had managed to get off the chart table, we re-set the anchor for the night. We needed to get further out of the main channel of the Illinois River before a 15 barge tow came our way at midnight.

Our next day was just as eventful. When John pulled over to photograph an historic paddle steamer, the carp started jumping on to the boat again. They are really big fish. They flap and jump, leaving blood and scales all over the deck and walls. They are too fat to slip back out through the scuppers so I have to catch them in order to throw them overboard. Having now had to deal with a dozen carp, we are over this form of fishing and no longer have any interest in eating the fillets already in the chilly bin.

Lake Michigan

We joined the Navy to see the sea, but what did we see...

We saw Lake Michigan...

and it was beautiful.

Extreme Weather Forecasts, Small Craft Advisories, High Wind Warnings and Hazardous Weather Alerts are all VHF radio messages that get our attention. They encourage us to hurry along to the next safe harbour. There is no need to be out on the water when the wind is gusting at 25 knots and the waves are five to eight feet high.

We had concerns about Lake Michigan which is over 300 miles long and 100 miles wide but found that the weather settled in the later part of August. We had glorious conditions as we motored down the lake. It was Chuck, the Customs man at Drummond Island who said that it is a wonderful sight to see the Great Lakes 'lie down' and this is exactly what Michigan did for us.

We capped off our Michigan adventures with ten days at Monroe Harbour in downtown Chicago. The music festivals, shows, museums, public scultpure, art and architecture are amazing. Chicago was another highlight in our year of travels.

Where are you?

Covered Portage Cove

"You find all the best anchorages" the locals say, when we list the nights that we have spent at Beausoleil Island, Parry Sound, Regatta Bay, Byng Inlet, The Gun Barrel, Mill Lake on Collins Inlet, Killarney, Covered Portage Cove (two nights because the kids wouldn't leave), Snug Harbour, Mary Ann Cove and The Pool at Bay Fine, Little Current, The Benjamin Islands and so on...

We have been winding our way through the pristine landscapes of the Georgian Bay and North Channel on a route known as the Small Craft Channel. The channel takes boaters through sheltered and scenic waters along the northern shores of Lake Huron. The water is deep and clear right to the edge where it meets steep cliffs and granite outcrops. The area is known as the '30,000 islands' but it seems as if there are a hundred thousand of them. Some are just below the surface and these are the ones that give the most trouble. They have names like 'The Spoiler', 'Hangdog Reef' and 'The Bustards'.

"Where are you?" was the cry from home at one stage when we had been out of cell phone range for weeks and only occasionally able to hook up to email. This is a remote area with few ports. Our food supply was supplemented by fresh fish and wild berries. The locals had told us that when we ran low on water we could take it straight from the lakes. I thanked them but said that I didn't think that would be necessary but after a week at anchor we did indeed start filling the kettle from the lake. Our companions were the Loons (Canada's national bird), non-descript snakes, chirruping frogs, bristley-faced beavers, bears (crashing about in the bushes) and coyotes that howled in the night. We climbed the hills above Frazer Bay for a breathtaking view of the region and followed the forest trail to swim in the blue waters of Topaz Lake above Bay Fine.

Canals

The Montreal Jazz Festival was a bonus on our visit to the largest French speaking city in the world outside of Paris. Standing in the rain amongst hundreds of umbrella wielding Quebecois music lovers was comedic. Hearing Nikki Yanofsky sing Over the Rainbow was pure magic.

Arriving in Ottawa with the sun on Parliament Hill was also a buzz. Ottawa City has the 'Wow' factor. We docked above the staircase of locks, cruised the markets, caught the Sound and Light Show, marched to Parliament Hill with the Beefeaters for the Changing of the Guard and immersed ourselves in the treasures of the Ottawa Art Gallery.

The Rideau Canal runs from Ottawa City to Kingston. This World Heritage Site, built in 1832 has 47 locks over 202 kilometres. The Rideau was one of the things we came to see but as always with travel, as much as the places we see, it is the people we meet that make the trip special. There is one very important rule in canal boating and that relates to the observance of 'Cocktail Hour' and when you travel you know that it is always 5 o'clock somewhere. So we frequently enjoyed a glass of wine with friends from Second Star, Different, Bumble Bee II, Temeraire, Cher and Rangitira along the way.

We remember the hospitality of Burton and Jim Simpson who took us home for dinner with mum, Myrtle, and Peter de Lepper who drove us around the Ontario countryside so that we could get a sense of where we were.

Lovesick Lock

The Trent Severn Waterway is a National Historic Treasure. It has 45 locks over 386 kilometres of canals and rivers. Along this route we experienced conventional locks, the 20 metre lift of the Peterborough Lift Lock and the 18 metre lift of the Big Chute marine railway in which the boat travelled in a sling, suspended above the rail line. The water is so clear on the Trent Severn that you can see the lock walls several feet below the waterline. Summer cottages line this isolated and pristine waterway.

We were advised by 'Loopers', Norm and Barbara Hewton to spend a night at Lock 30 on Lovesick Island where there is a bear and a swimming hole. As soon as we arrived, Alice and Lloyd ran to ask the lockkeeper about the bear. "Oh, you don't want to see the bear" he said. The mother and her cub cross the dam every day in search of food. "Okay, so can you tell us how to get to the swimming hole?" "Yes, it's across the dam." The kids came back to the boat. They had gone off the idea of swimming. Together, we crossed the dam. We found two cuddly little baby racoons, no bears, and a lovely swimming hole at the edge of the woods. Our swims are often cut short when one of us sees a snake mooching about on the bottom just below us.

Great Friends

A good friend is one who will drive an hour and a half to pick you up and this is what Jennifer did for us. We recently enjoyed a lovely stay with our friends Jennifer and Kane and their five year old twins, Kate and William. It made a nice change from the boat for a few days and to sleep in a real bed and be driven around all of the Nakahara’s favourite places, including a visit to Milky Way Farm for home-made ice cream was great. The Nakahara’s live in a beautiful, heavily wooded and historic corner of Pennsylvania where wild deer frequent the garden which is also home to woodpeckers, bluejays, chipmunks and squirrels. It is a special treat to stay in the home of friends and this was a lovely visit for us.



Happy hour on the Hudson:

We are lucky to have also found new friends in America as we have travelled. Boating people are wonderful people who share common interests and work to help each other out every day. People have been so generous with their time, resources and friendship. We did receive an exceptionally warm welcome this week, as we arrived at the dock of the Castleton on Hudson Boat Club. A large group was standing on the dock shouting “welcome” and “you made it!” which was great except that we couldn’t remember where we had met these folks before. We tied up and completed the paperwork and then went to say “hello” to the ‘welcoming party’. The group, by this time, had realized that we weren’t the friends that they thought they were waving to but they explained this to us over several cold beers and by the time we left we were like old friends anyway.

Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York

Our time in Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York reads like a catalogue of galleries, museums and tourist sights but even if we each only learned one thing from each place we would all be richer for it. The list goes like this:

In Washington, DC, we visited the Library of Congress, Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Museums of Art; Air and Space; Natural History; American Indian; American History; National Portrait Gallery; Freer Gallery and saw Capitol Hill, The Mall, White House and Washington Monument.

In the city of Philadelphia we walked along Elfreth’s Alley where the houses and cobbled streets date from the early 1700’s. We went to the Ben Franklin Museum; Liberty Bell; and Independence Hall. We visited Valley Forge National Park; toured the winter headquarters of George Washington and finished the day with Shoo Fly Pie at the Memorial Chapel Cabin Café.

In New York we went to the Frick Museum of Art; the Guggenheim Museum of Art and Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition; shopping at Macy’s (that’s cultural!); a Chuck Brown concert at Battery Park; open-air movie night at Bryant Park; a Soo Bae cello concert at the Schimmel Centre; dinner at Wo Hop’s in Chinatown; a yoga class in Times Square; the Magic Flute with the New York City Opera, and like all good tourists managed to get lost in Central Park more than once.

Big Seas

The Chesapeake Bay treated us well. We only had one occasion when a storm front approached and within twenty minutes the water had bucked up into short sharp waves. At this point we decided to turn into a small harbour that we had just passed. The waves surged us across the sand bar and into a quiet bay where we immediately ran aground. Running aground in the Chesapeake area just means that you have settled into the soft bottom and with a bit of manoevering we were free and soon safely anchored for the night. The next morning we left early to catch the high tide at the mouth of St Jerome Creek but the fog was thick and made it hard even to find the channel markers in the creek let alone the sand bar. The waves were 1-2 feet but the conditions didn’t seem too bad. John was just adjusting the speed when he noticed that the computer seemed to be playing up. He had just said “the last thing we need is for the computer to die” because we couldn’t see a thing. The little green boat on the screen was pointing at the shore. I restarted the computer and in that time the St Jerome Creek markers had come back into view. John had done a 180 without realizing it. We decided that it would be safer to go back up the creek and leave the Chesapeake for another day.

Subsequent journeys on the Chesapeake Bay were in glassy conditions. We could come back here and sail for a whole season someday, as we barely scratched the surface of the western shore and the eastern side is reputed to be every bit as charming.

The Delaware Bay is the most reverred stretch on the entire Intracoastal Waterway. Winds and tides can easily make for a miserable day as there are few places to shelter once commited to the run. We were fortunate to have a beautiful day as we left Havre de Grace at the top of the Chesapeake, and to have the tide with us as we moved through the C & D Canal. The conditions were still in our favour when we reached the Delaware River so we decided to push on even though it was getting late in the day. We sailed a compass course down the bay and approached the lights of Cape May just after dark. Entering an unfamiliar harbour in the dark is never easy. Soon a Christmas tree of lights was approaching us and honking. A guy was standing amid the blinding lights shouting for us to pass him on his port side. ‘He’ was a barge laying out a mile-long stretch of pipeline in the black water. The kids kept watch as unlit bridgeheads, jetties and signs leapt at us from the darkness on the final four mile run to the port of Cape May. After twelve hours of motoring and a distance of over 90 miles we were delighted to drop anchor and toast our triumph over the Delaware Bay.

In the next few days we traversed a completely different landscape when we did the Intracoastal Waterway between Cape May and Manasquan Inlet just north of Atlantic City. This is a pretty stretch where the waterway winds through a series of rivers, creeks and swampy shallows. The channel is well marked and by traveling on a rising tide we had few problems.

A series of cold fronts has been moving over the east coast so we needed a window of fine weather for the 25 mile run along the outside of the New Jersey coast. It was a grey morning with 1-2 foot waves and a slight swell as we set off. Alice and Lloyd slept for the first couple of hours of what turned out to be a fairly rough trip. The conditions weren’t bad but the sea was certainly lumpy. Nothing could dampen the thrill of sailing into New York, past the Statue of Liberty and the magnificent city-scape of Manhattan.

Henry I Nygard Regatta

Here, you will see Alice and Lloyd on parade with Ship 361 and Ship 759 at the opening of the Henry I Nygard Sea Scout Regatta which took place at Camp Brown on the Potomac River, 22-25 May 2009.

We anchored 'Pearl' near Camp Brown and went ashore by dinghy.


We were given a tremendously warm welcome by the Scouts and their leaders. Alice and Loyd participated in many events. Their group was particularly successful in the Scuttlebutt Competition and the Galley Competition and we look forward to sharing some new ideas with the troops back home.

The weather was gorgeous and the whole weekend was a great experience. Many thanks to all the people who made this Regatta possible and to Alonzo Rodriguez for the photographs.

Chesapeake Bay

From the Dismal Swamp we moved on in convoy to Norfolk City on the Elizabeth River. The river is wide, and lined with aircraft carriers and naval vessels and is spanned by huge industrial-looking bridges, that had to open for us.

We motored out of Norfolk at 6am hoping to have a look at the Chesapeake Bay and carry on if it wasn’t too wild. The forecast sounded okay but it had been rough enough to turn boats back the day before. It didn’t seem bad as we left the Elizabeth River and was fine on the run up to Horn Harbour which was 30 miles away and our first possible port but the water was calm and we were having a good run so we pushed on. And on, for 13 hours, until we reached the Potomac River 90 miles from Norfolk. In the afternoon, the water calmed to a millpond. The scene was surreal. The satin-finish water appeared to be level with the gunwhales and there was no dividing line between the sea and the sky. A fleet of fishing vessels swept across our bow in the late afternoon heading for the Cockrell Creek Fish Processing plant on the Great Wicomico River.

The Chesapeake offers beautiful boating and safe harbours. This a place that we could happily come back to in the future.

The Great Dismal Swamp

We had a lovely run up the beautiful Pasquatank River, through the South Mills lock and onto the Great Dismal Swamp where we pulled into the Welcome Centre’s free dock. We were heading back to ‘Pearl’ from a visit to the Park Headquarters and walk in the bush, planning to move on when a thunderstorm coincided with the arrival of other boats. Soon the boats were rafting up, three deep, alongside, in front and behind us, and it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere. We had looked forward to visiting the Dismal Swamp throughout the planning stages of the trip so we were not disappointed to be staying longer. The convivial atmosphere among the boaters more than made up for the rain and chilly temperatures.

The weather brightened by Monday afternoon so we put on our walking gear and set off along the towpath for icecreams at the village of South Mills four miles away. It proved to be a long walk so when we saw a boat in the lock we asked about the possibility of riding with them back to the Welcome Centre. Jocelyn and Ron on ‘Calisto III’ were happy to oblige. They warmed us up with freshly brewed coffee and their stories of cruising the Bahamas.

Elizabeth City

Albemarle Sound is a formidable body of water that gives some sailors a washing machine ride so we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves as we crossed the 20 mile stretch in calm conditions with the early morning sunshine glinting in our eyes. As we pulled into Elizabeth City a reception party of boaters was on hand to take our lines. The process of getting aft lines onto poles and forward lines onto the dock, with following waves that want to chase you straight up the middle of Main Street, is one that unites boaties. The city provides a free dock and Sam, the ‘official greeter’ was soon on hand to give us the lay of the land. At 4.30pm we were treated to wine and cheese, a welcome by the Mayor and the presentation of roses to the ladies, in the ‘Rose Buddies’ tradition.

After four days without having stepped on land, we spent a couple of days in Elizabeth City visiting the library, laundrymat, and local history museum. Some places get hold of you and make it hard to leave and so it was when it came time to cast off and the motor wouldn’t fire up. This was a first for us. John spent the best part of a day below decks trying to solve the problem. Lloyd, the local mechanic, diagnosed battery problems but wouldn’t accept any payment as he said “I haven’t lifted a wrench yet”. Jim from the ‘Linda Mae’ next door handed over a unit to jump start the motor; Sam, the town greeter, drove John to the garage to have the batteries tested (they were fine); and Don from ‘Impulse’ popped in with practical assistance. In the end some heavy duty cleaning of the battery terminals did the job.

By the time we were ready to leave, people were saying “you can’t leave now. We have the Annual Potato Festival coming up this weekend” so we stayed for the rubber ducky race, Black Beard pirate show, Farmers Market, street music and 1950s hydroplane races.

A couple of days later, when I asked Lloyd how he was getting on with his school work, he said “I’m mowing down the units like a lawnmower in the Elizabeth City Potato Festival ride-on mower races". Perhaps the unit on similes and metaphors was not lost on him. His English teacher will be pleased.

Cape Fear

A highlight of the trip was visiting the Waccamaw River. Moss-draped cypress trees line the waterway, ospreys make their nests on the channel marker posts, bats haunt the trees at dusk and an alligator cruised by as night fell. From our anchorage among the overhanging trees we awoke to a magnificent chorus of birdsong. This is some of the loveliest boating that we have ever experienced.

In the first week of May we enjoyed the hospitality of Holden Beach, North Carolina. Holden Beach is the home port of our friends Lois and Lorenzo. Lorenzo was waiting on the dock to wave us in when we arrived and then over the next few days, with much help, we managed to sort out the motor for our dinghy (new parts fitted and carbeuretor cleaned and refitted), repair the seams of the Zodiac (dinghy) where they were starting to separate, borrow the car and get to the Home Depot to buy some new outdoor carpet for the top deck, get a replacement computer (for the one that died the week before) and new navigational software set up and do general maintenance including touching-up the paintwork. These jobs are never straightforward and waiting for paint and glues to dry in the high humidity and regular thunderstorms just make them all the more interesting.

When a river has a name like "Cape Fear" you should think twice before heading out onto it in a small boat but as we were slipping and sliding in the waves of Cape Fear River John said "the guidebook does recommend that 'northbound vessels should leave Southport one hour after high tide to ensure a comfortable ride.' This was great information as we were ploughing along having left Southport one hour before low tide instead. Eventually the river calmed as we distanced ourselves from the mouth and the sun began to shine. We anchored that night at Sloop Point behind Topsail Island. This island sits between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. In the 1700s, the small channels in this area were used by pirates as a hiding place from which they attacked merchant sailors. The merchant ships soon learned to keep a lookout for the topsails showing above the sand dunes and so giving the area its name.

As we move north we discover a lot of lovely places. One such visit was to the town of Oriental where we picked up supplies, called home for Mothers Day and then stopped briefly at the fuel dock to take on some more diesel. The Town Dock news reporter happened to be on the dock and wrote a piece for the website with some very candid photos.

Georgia and South Carolina

After leaving Florida we have been moving steadily north through Georgia and South Carolina. We have stayed in some beautiful wilderness areas and seem to have had good holding on our anchorages. The visits of particular interest in this area have been to the historic village of Jekyll Island, Georgia; the home of sardines and shrimps in Brunswick; the gorgeous squares of Savannah; and now the pretty streets of Beaufort, South Carolina.

Lightening capital of the world!

A week in the life of a 'looper', someone doing the Great Circle Loop, is a long time. We enjoyed our last week in Florida by spending time in the welcoming city of Jacksonville and we packed a lot of sightseeing into that week. The free docks provided for 'transient' boaters like us, gave us the opportunity to leave the boat for a couple of days and make a SERVAS visit.

Friday 10 April: Joan our SERVAS host offered us the kayaks in her barn and showed us where to launch them from the dock at the bottom of her wilderness garden. We paddled downstream, through the wildlife-filled marshes and round the bend to the white rock where an alligator slipped into the water as we approached and right on cue as predicted by Joan. We followed the river under a few bridges almost to where it meets the St John's River. Kids on Spring Break were swimming, waterskiing and fishing along the way. We arrived home with sunburn, itchy bites and a few blisters but thrilled by our kayak experience.

Saturday 11 April: The Jacksonville Zoo is accessible from a free dock so we spent a day following the animal feeding times at the zoo. At one point, Alice asked a Park Ranger for directions to the bears but his response was that "we don't have any bees here". "Grrrr, grizzly bears" growled Alice. "Oh, the baaares!" It was Easter at the time and so it took the rangers quite some time to set out the Easter treats and a reasonable amount of time for the bears to find the fruit-filled jellies and sardine-filled iceblocks and eat these treats. This was a fun spectacle and we had a great day at the zoo. We stayed so long that the tide had gone out when we returned to the boat and we had settled into the mud, so we stayed the night at the dock. The wolves howled eerily in the night.

Sunday 12 April: Lloyd was through the gate at 9am in the morning. "How did you get in here so fast?" asked several staff as the zoo doesn't open officially until 10am. After another few hours at the zoo we moved off to downtown Jacksonville. We spent the afternoon at the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) where we did a print making workshop which was great fun. We had some delicious coffee and cakes at the gallery cafe and drinks and nibbles at Hooters Bar on the way home.

Monday 13 April: We moved to an anchorage on the Ortega River in suburban Jacksonville. A storm blew up late in the day with a fantastic lightening show. We had been warned that Floida is "the lightening capital of the world" and we found this out for ourselves. The lightening, wind and rain were impressive and water poured in the windows and onto the bedding in the first real rainstorm that we had experienced in the boat. The next morning started calmly but by 10am the lightening was going again and as we bucked up and down, Alice was saying "we're moving". Then Lloyd said "now, we're really moving" and John said "Phillippa, get up here quick!" The anchor had pulled free and was flying behind us like a kite. John started the motor and we moved to a more sheltered spot on the south side of the river. A couple of local guys came out in the storm to offer us a mooring ball which was more secure than the anchor. We were luckier than another boat that beached itself on the north bank.

Tuesday 14 April: We visited the Jacksonville Maritime Museum where Lloyd enjoyed the display and videos of the WWII aircraft carriers. In the afternoon we did the River walk to the Cummer Museum of Art. The museum has a delightful collection of art and beautiful English and Italian gardens.

Wednesday 15 April: It was time to push on from Jacksonville so we anchored in Sister's Creek beside the Fort George Plantation. Against a pretty sunset backdrop, the kids went ashore and built sandcastles. The next morning we were sitting on deck on a glorious morning, saying "it doesn't get much better than this." We visited the Plantation house, kitchen, garden, barn and slave quarters where more than 80 slaves once harvested Sea Island Cotton and Indigo.

Thursday 16 April: Fernandina Beach provided a good port for the night and we had pleasant stroll around the tourist shops.

Sights and sounds

This is so cool! Caloosahatchee River, Indian River, Halifax River, Mantanzas River and now St John’s River – we’re moving on!

We have had a big week with some long days, touristic sights and a SERVAS visit.
We are in Jacksonville on the St Johns River, Florida. It took a ten hour day to get here with the wind and tide against us and travelling at 3.9 knots whereas a couple of days before we covered a far greater distance in less time and were doing 8.3 knots with all forces working in our favour. We generally stay a night or two at anchor in each place and dinghy ashore to visit the sights by day. The sights this week have included Daytona Beach, Kennedy Space Centre, and the tourist town of St Augustine.

Everybody notices our accent and we never fail to receive a comment from every person that we meet. We don’t know how it is that we sound so different, having grown up with Homer Simpson, Friends, Sex in the City and the like. It is surprising to us that we could have so many expressions that are unique to the kiwi lingo. Boating friend, Bill, took me in his car to ‘Big Lots’, a surplus store with great prices on household items when I was trying to buy painting supplies. Bill pointed out some heavy plastic sheeting that would make ideal drop cloths and asked if I thought they would do. “They’re ‘spot-on’, I exclaimed. Bill went about Big Lots using his new found expression. “Spot-on, Mam” he said to the checkout assistant. Some of John’s mechanical terminology has raised a few eyebrows as well. He told the staff at the West Marine boat supply store that the water system was “dodgy” and went on to explain that the fittings were a bit “shonky” and that had the guys guffawing out the back.

Our other big language experience is in using the VHF radio. As we approach a bridge with 16 foot or less clearance we switch to channel 9 and say “Come In, Knox Bridge, this is the north bound vessel, Pearl, currently approaching the bridge.” They say “Knox Bridge control. You are clear to proceed. Over.” We say “Roger” and they say “Have a nice day, Over and Out.” Something similar happens as we approach the marinas. We call up to request permission to come alongside the fuel dock and they say “cccrrrshsh crssh crrsh. Over.” And we look about frantically as a man (or just as often, a woman) in a white shirt with insignia appears on the dock ready to take our lines.

Underway in Florida

Well, we are really underway. We crossed Lake Okeechobee with Lloyd at the helm. We had waves breaking over the bow, and occasionally over the roof, but Lloyd rode them as if he was on a bucking bronco. ‘Pearl’ handled the conditions well and we all enjoyed the ride. We were pleased to be traveling in convoy with ‘Lil David’ who led the way for 50 miles and eight hours of motoring. At the end of the day we picked up a mooring in Stuart, Florida where we stayed for a couple of nights.

At the Post Office in Stuart, John was asking for change for the photocopier when someone said “that must be a kiwi accent!” Vanessa, from Tauranga and now resident in Florida, stepped forward from the queue and invited us home for a bbq with her family. Vanessa did say that her work colleagues thought she was mad as we may be “random axe murderers”. We had a lovely evening and thoroughly enjoyed a little kiwi company after being on the road for a couple of months.

Heading north on the IntraCoastal Waterway, we are currently on the Indian River and anchoring out at night in the shelter of small tropical islands to the side of the waterway. Lloyd has had considerable success, and a fair bit of excitement, with his fishing rod. Last night he caught four catfish just before dinner which John filleted and put straight into the pan. They were good eating.

The weather has been very pleasant in the time that we have been in Florida. They have had 2 inches of rain in the year to date rather than the normal average of 7 inches. The only weather challenge is the windy conditions that we have experienced in the past week which tends to take the lettuce off our plates and occasionally the furniture right off the top deck.

A couple of weeks ago we had an incident with a swarm of bees that attacked us. John had a bad reaction but managed to sleep it off over a few days. Then just a couple of days ago Lloyd was stung again by a bee and his hand swelled up. It was as big as the puffer fish that he has been catching. I note that his hand was too sore for school work but he could still catch fish! He shrieks with fear and excitement with every fish that he gets. Usually they are pleasant sized catfish that are good eating but occasionally he runs inside as if the fish is chasing him. He puts the rod away when the fish are too big. It's just too scary and he has dreams about whales chasing him. There are some seriously big and weird looking fish here. It's a lot of fun.

Alice is also having a great time. She talks excitedly about everything but is also much more inclined to settle down to her school work. Sometimes there are a lot of distractions. We have been known to take the kiwi flag down because we get so many people wanting to chat to us about New Zealand and there are always boat dramas happening around us all the time. Tonight we hope to see a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral from the boat.

The adventures of Pearl

Here is Pearl lying at a private dock in North Fort Myers. John is busy with pre-trip maintenance work before we set sail around the middle of March. We plan to head east on the Caloosahatchee River to Lake Okeechobee and then the St Lucie Canal to Stuart on Florida's east coast.

Wildlife

Some of the amazing wildlife that we have seen at close range:

Getting started

Enjoying Key Lime Pie in Key West: The southernmost point in Florida:

Alligators everywhere:

February Diary

We have been tourists for a few weeks while we search for a boat. This has taken us to a variety of campsites and wonderful SERVAS visits:

31 Jan-2 Feb: Staying with Frank and Nicole in Pompano Beach.

3 -6 February: Staying with Jennifer, Kane, Kate and William in Naples.

7 Feb: Bahia Honda State Park Buttonwood Campsite, Florida Keys.

8 Feb: Camping at Leo's Campground in Key West.

9 Feb: Bahia Honda to camp at the Sandspur Beach, Florida Keys.

10-11 Feb: Staying with Ardyth and Don in Boca Raton where we were taken for a cruise on the Intracoastal Waterway and for a visit to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands Preserve. Visited Shark Valley National Park.

12-13 Feb: Staying with Linda and Ken in Cape Coral where we enjoyed the pool and spa. Ken took us on a sunset cruise along the canal. You too, can take a cruise with Linda and Ken through Carefree Birding.com.

14-16 Feb: Staying with Patti and Bob in Fort Myers where Jim and Emily took us for a cruise along the Caloosahatchee River.

17-18 Feb: Peace River Campground and our first experience of the nasty blighters called "No-see-ums".

19-23 Feb: Seminole Campground, Fort Myers.

24 Feb-5 March: House sitting for Emily at the Landings. "We could get used to this."

Taking the 'Pearl' for a sea trial and survey on Friday 13th. Unlucky for some, but we hope it will be a good day for us and that the boat will get a good report.

Here are some shots of 'Pearl' as they appeared on the broker's website. She is a 30' steel Bruce Roberts trawler that was custom built and launched in 2005:



This cabin has since been gutted by John to create a better sleeping arrangement for us.

The motor is an 85hp Scania diesel engine with easy walk-around access.

Camping at Easterlin Park, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Thanks to Bill for the photo.

January Diary

We flew with Air New Zealand to San Francisco on 19 January and on to Fort Lauderdale with American Airlines. There were 60 hours between waking up in Christchurch, New Zealand and finally getting to bed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.We stayed at Easterlin Park in Fort Lauderdale from 20 January to 30 February. This is a lovely park close to the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale. The park has 250 year old cypress trees, nature trails, abundant wildlife and a fair measure of traffic noise from the I95 and neighbouring railway line. It's many characters included the man who walks his pet pig at dusk. We saw at close range many creatures that were new to us: squirrels, racoons, iguanas, snakes, lizards (with brown heads, green bodies and blue tails) and a variety of wading birds.