Hello Florida!

It's been a while... so buckle up, this is a long post!

Pretest

1. What did Lynn discover during Thanksgiving dinner? 

a. small leak from the deck fitting of our saltwater washdown hose resulting in the contents of our forward bilge/storage compartment getting wet 

b. 1980's vintage Superwoman Underoos (link) that Lynn swears is not hers 

c. desiccated kids Cliff Bar circa 2011 (from previous owner) lodged far under a cabinet
d. all of the above
e. a and c

2. Why did Baila find herself aground en route to Cumberland Island, GA?

A. because a vital green marker had gone missing that morning

B. the shoal had recently shifted into the channel 

C. a submarine from the local base was underneath us tapping into our communications equipment (likely to gain blog access) when our keel fouled their conning tower making for a tense few hours during which annoyed Navy divers detangled the mess

D. because Georgia is just too damned shallow

E. all of the above except C, with special emphasis on D.  

3. What is that mysterious 'snap, crackle and pop' that we hear late at night?

A. shrimp nibbling at our hull

B. Avery curled up in her cabin munching on rice crispy treats

C. a packet of pop-rocks reacting to the high ambient humidity

D. semi-buoyant fatty fecal deposits from bottlenose dolphins hitting Baila's hull in the swift current

4. What feel-good and geographically appropriate movie did we watch with the girls the night before visiting Savannah, GA?
A. Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (Breakin' 2)
B. Apocalypse Now
C. Leaving Las Vegas
D. Forrest Gump

Answers: 1-e, 2-e, 3-a, 4-d

Now you know a few things that have transpired over the past few weeks. Let's flesh it out a bit.

Last week

Jumping for joy in the cockpit, the girls high-fived as we crossed the imaginary border extending across the choppy sound separating Georgia and Florida.  Though we had truly enjoyed South Carolina and Georgia, we were ready to move on from the tricky current laden labyrinth that comprises these low country waterways.  Despite these navigation challenges, it's surely a magical place that offers cruisers a nice choice of quaint towns and endless hidden coves for enjoying the absolutely stunning scenery.  What it also generously offers is its bottom.  Not in an inappropriate 'mooning' kind of way,  but rather in a "I wish there was just more water here" kind of way.  But more on that later. 

Before last week

After departing Charleston we caught up to our friends on s/v Sandflea in Beaufort, SC (pronounced 'byoo-fert' and not to be confused with Beaufort, NC pronounced 'boh-fert').  Avery and Molly were so happy to be together again!  

It's kind of weird how similar these two are in personality, stature and choice of clothing

Not a lot of things can out-cute these two little micro-munchkins walking around holding hands

The ubiquitous tidal marsh of the Low Country

The view of our anchorage in Beaufort, SC.  That haziness is smoke from the wildfires in NC, SC and Georgia 

Beaufort, SC is a small town located right on the ICW.  It is the site of an early Spanish settlement (Santa Elena) and we found it interesting to visit the settlement museum located in what was until recently the local county court and jail.  To the right you can see Izzy and Avery communicating with an incarcerated Lynn in the visiting area.  I think seeing these jail cells boosted the girls impressions of their small cabins aboard Baila

We're starting to see more people like this guy.  Seriously drumming to his own beat.  Look carefully at the bow- indeed that is a motor scooter lashed to the boat.  This dude is so awesome. 

Sun setting over anchorage

However, the sunset induced euphoria came to a screeching halt with: 

The Canus Excretus Affair  

One evening as we unwittingly unloaded our things from the dinghy onto Baila's swim platform, we noticed that distinct pungent, acrid and pervasive smell of dog poo.  But before I could yell "STOP!  SOMEONE HAS SURELY STEPPED IN DOG $&*t!", it was too late.  Isabelle had already galloped through the cockpit and down the companionway stairs to the salon and in the process tracked countless smears of dog badness.  Let us just say that this unknown canine uni-bomber must have been an obese St. Bernard dabbling in anabolic steroids and fed countless Philly cheesesteaks daily- because that was a big ole turd that Izzy managed to disperse throughout the boat.  The thing is- she was wearing flip flops.  And even after doffing the offending flops the poor girl still had the samurai dog's poo on her bare feet.  It sure was something to clean up.  

From Beaufort we made our way to the Herb River, located several miles from Savannah, GA.  This became one of our favorite anchorages, and we stayed several days while some friends caught up to us.  In addition to the surrounding beauty, one can hop in the dinghy and zip up to a restaurant (the Wyld) that permits cruisers to tie up and leave their dinghies on the way to Savannah.  Of course we had to check out their fare and I'd say they have the best fish tacos I've ever had!   Here's Lynn to talk about that. 

At a museum in Savannah, GA.  In an amazing coincidence all three girls happened to all independently wear similar as well as historically appropriate outfits

This is where Forrest's bench sat (it was a movie prop).  All day while walking around in Savannah the older girls chanted "Run Avery run!"  Admittedly it was funny the first 53 times

Here are some dolphin clips.. its still so amazing when they cruise the bow wave and look up at us

Jekyll Island, GA is great.  We were lucky to be there when they had their tree-lighting festival downtown.  Arriving by dinghy we felt badly for the hordes of people who endured major bridge traffic to be there!  The live-oak trees were festooned with strings of lights and it was really beautiful.  After the tree was lit there were fireworks and- get this- fake snow!  They had foam blowers placed all around the park, and I must say it was pretty good snow.  It was funny to hear a nearby local say "yeah- one time I was up in New York during winter and I saw real snow- this is nothing like it."  A real live southern Debbie-Downer.

Lynn
Jekyll Island was great, but that's not why we stayed so long...every day or every other day a major project/disaster surfaced.  The first was the leak I discovered in our forward storage cabinet.  This turned out to be an "easy" fix but the residual mold and mildew clean up was not so easy.  We had to air our mattress , which means lugging it up above for display in our cockpit, much to the amusement of the dolphin tour ferries.  We, or rather I, had to remove all of our clothes, books, tools, files and other assorted stuff from our cabin to Izzy's in order to scrub the walls with a toothbrush (to get in the grooves of the wood paneling).  I felt like Private Judy Benjamin on latrine duty.  Disaster number two was uncovered when checking on the status of disaster number one: possible leak from our forward (poop) holding tank! And our mattress comes off again! Brad spent most of a day swearing and sweating in the little compartments under our bed as he replaced hoses.  The rest of us tried to do school work or in Avery's case, take refuge in an imaginary world of tiny action figure dogs and baby dolls.  The third disaster came a day or two later as Brad needed about "30 minutes" to flush the watermaker with cleaner chemicals.  This turned into several hours after some issues and involved blockading the aft head and refrigerator door, removing several floor boards and a scary episode where cleaning solution squirted his eye.  I had visions of him being blinded and having to dictate everything to me as I assumed the role of Captain.  Thankfully, I know how to operate and lock up the dingy properly now.  This last skill came in very handy, since we were about to run out of water and the tidal waters of Jekyll were too silty for our watermaker.  Izzy and I made several runs back and forth across the harbor before dark, filling our 7 gallon container with potable water.  The watermaker is fixed and modified.  Despite all of these disaster projects, we did manage to enjoy Jekyll Island, when we were able to get off the boat.  We hiked through the maritime forests (with and without bug spray), walked along the beaches, explored the historic district of town and visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  Wish us luck as Brad is going to change the oil and overhaul the windlass tomorrow morning - let's hope it's not disaster #4 (though everyone says this stuff always comes in three's)! I would also like to add that Brad, though verbally colorful while in the midst of a disaster project, is always able to think clearly, innovate and problem-solve.  We are lucky that he is so handy.

I was getting ready to go to shore for a run when this project derailed my morning plans (I'm just explaining why I'm wearing this awesome outfit).  Oh- important:  that is not a headband.  It's a WORK HEADLAMP.  

Hike through maritime forest without bug spray (top) and Thanksgiving family selfie (bottom).

Avery helping to clean up for Thanksgiving dinner

Note: Hand-dipped candle made by one of the girls at Middleton Place Plantation in Charleston. Costumes for the Thanksgiving play.  It was a very long play with some extended soliloquies and complex character development.  Spoiler alert: eventually the Native Americans and Pilgrims have a big happy meal together

Just your average marine-grade kimono, traditionally worn one-socked

Jekyll Island foam snow.

Starting to get into some navigation exercises.  Basic stuff and the girls are getting it.  They are starting to take the helm more and becoming increasingly confident handling the boat.  

Skipper Anna

We've started dabbling with the water maker.  Here Avery uses the refractometer to check the product water salinity

The Georgia Mud Episode

As eluded to in above pretest, we decided that simply sailing along with water underneath us wasn't exciting enough.  So, we decided to check out the bottom firsthand.   

Post-hurricane navigation here involves lots of source cross-checking.  The printed charts are from before the storm and often don't reflect current shoaling.  For the most part the navigational aids (markers) have been appropriately moved, and social media as well plays a huge role (apps like "Active Captain" with superimposed social media input pertinent to one's location).  This has actually been the most helpful source of current information.

While we lazily made way down to Cumberland Island, GA, we approached a particularly confusing area.  The physical navigational aids did not match what was charted (the markers had us crossing an area that was charted as an island!).  Nonetheless, in this situation one trusts their eyes over what the paper says.  Unfortunately the picture before us wasn't complete- there were markers on one side only making it unclear how far over to land we should be (we later found out that the marker on the other side went missing that morning).  We stayed closer to the markers figuring that was likely the deeper water, but unfortunately the deeper water was closest to land.  We ran aground with an outgoing tide meaning that the water would continue to drop for another two hours.  We had to wait almost 5 hours before there was enough water to float again.   The only sketchy part about this was that because of our keel design (imagine an upside down fin with 2 little horizontal wings at the bottom), we actually remained perfectly upright throughout the episode.  This sounds great, but the concern was that any moment we could have precipitously flopped over, which though not dangerous for the boat could have been hectic for us aboard.  So, there we remained, not moving around, wondering if and when we would do the big flop.  But we did fine and promptly added an Active Captain post for that spot!

Incidentally, NOAA and USCG were there to move and replace those  markers and mentioned that the shoal had shifted again within the preceding week.  We were so happy to have helped discover this.

Izzy's perspective on running aground

As you already know we ran aground. Avery and I actually had fun running aground. We were exercising up on the deck by doing frog jumps, jumping jacks and jogging in place.  We really enjoyed that we didn't have to be up above with a life jacket. Once the tow boat dude came he said it was going to be awhile and that we shouldn't move around, :( so Anna and I jumped down to grab our phones.  Six hours and 400 youtube videos later we were saved by the tide coming up! The tow boat man was so nice.  He lead us to an anchorage that was peaceful and quiet. 

As a reference point- the waterline is normally where the dark meets the white on our boat-- you can see how far below that the water is! And yes, we did appreciate how hilarious it was that we were perfectly perched there for all to see. We served as a great navigational aid that day of where NOT to go. Also- check out all of that water to our starboard (right); That's all about one foot deep. Another boat decided to ignore everyone's advice and attempt to go through there (since in fact that is the charted channel), and they were lucky to be able to back off the shoal and remain afloat. They were French-Canadians (alway funny at baseline) and their loud guttural verbal sparring from bow to cockpit whilst deciding the best route was honestly very entertaining. Which was good since we were a captive audience

Cumberland Island

Beautiful place.  We anchored just off the island after meeting up with some friends whom we haven't seen since North Carolina.  Walking around the island, one can tour the ruins of the old Carnegie Estate (burned down in 1959) amidst wild horses, deer, turkey and armadillo who all seem totally oblivious to and unbothered by our presence.  We had to warn the girls to not pet the armadillos since leprosy could significantly hinder our plans for this year.

Avery
The wild horses walked right past us.  And the armadillos got super close to us also.  We got to see Miss Vicki again because we met them a long time ago on the boat and saw them again here.  I made her a rainbow loom necklace and we had fun eating the food on their boat.  And drawing at the table on their boat.  I liked to play fetch with Simba (her dog).   I heart you.  (BRAD: Avery dictated, I typed word for word.  She insisted on "heart" as her verb and denies having any particular intended recipient for the hearting- just a blanket heart).

Weirdest animal ever.   Native Americans refer to them as "rabbit turtles."  I think it looks like a pillbug or some crustacean crossed with a opossum.  Either way, it's really not a normal animal

Random stuff

As many of you know, last year Lynn became involved with Norwex, a company (www.LynnFalk.Norwex.biz) which makes cleaning products near and dear to her heart.  She became a sales consultant and she is really quite knowledgable and passionate about it.  Initially skeptical, I have jumped on the Norwex bandwagon after seeing it in action.  It has turned out to be perfect for longterm cruising.  We have a running joke in which she sneaks up and takes videos of me using the products to use on her Facebook page.   I'm fairly certain this is the first time the Norwex wet mop has been used to clean solar panels.

Previously we have told the girls that they couldn't perform on-deck gymnastics after we discovered their slo-mo videos.  They listened- however we just found this.  "But it's down below!"  Well, that's true.

The girls unleashed upon the beach at Walburg Creek (St. Catherine's Island)

A very special dinner aboard s/v Omorfi Thea.  Many thanks to Eric and Vicki, as well as huge kudos to Ben (a friend of theirs from home who happens to be a professional chef sailing with them and made the incredible meal!)

Izzy tried this several times before realizing that a jellyfish and fishnet have different physical properties than a lacrosse ball and stick

Headed home at the end of the day

If you live on a boat then you do a lot of this

  

The tidal range ceases to amaze us.  Luckily Baila was not one of these boats.  

Ok, I'd say that's enough for now.  We are in St. Augustine Island, Florida, now.  It is absolutely amazing and deserving of a whole new post.  It is by far our favorite place so far and we want to stay longer.  Nanny and Poppy Falk's good friends have a son who lives here with his family.  Eric and Cindy Chaconas with their two adorable children are a truly lovely family and have been so incredibly hospitable and generous- but more on that next time. 

Anna

We are currently in Saint Augustine, Florida and it is absolutely gorgeous! Even though I have never been to Spain, my parents say it looks a lot like it, presumably so because it was founded by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon in 1565. Filled with "castles", lookout forts, palm trees, and red terra-cotta roofs, it reminds me a little bit of Disney Land! Well, I hate to say that that's it for me. I usually write more, but St. Augustine is such a paradise we want to turn it into its own post.