Norfolk, VA
To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.
Anchored at 24°37.5312′N, 82°52.3086′W.
Fort Jefferson -- centerpiece of the Dry Tortugas.
From Boo Boo Key, it's a solid 6 hours to the Dry Tortugas.
We had 1-3' seas, which is manageable, but unpleasant. It's at the edge of being …
Anchored at 24°34.1905′N, 82°10.1428′W.
This is the start of Phase V -- The Dry Tortugas.
The first leg of the trip to the Dry Tortugas from Key West is to Boo Boo Key. This is a patch of mangroves they call "The …
We've anchored near Pye Key and Torch Key. While we dropped the anchor at 24°39.803′N 081°25.583′W, we didn't stay there.
I did not read the coastal pilot carefully. The "controlling depths" for the channels near here are 3½′ and 4′. This is a place …
Our third day of "day sailing" to go island hopping. (Again, not actually sailing, the wind was on the nose, so it was a 5-hour motor.)
We're anchored at 24°51.762′N 080°44.516′W, not far from Lower Matecumbe Key. There's …
Another fun bit of "day sailing". (Not actually sailing, the wind was on the nose, so it was a 4-hour motor.)
We're anchored at 25°03.500′N 080°26.734′W, not far from Rodriguez Key. And the sandbar party.
Yesterday, I had a fit …
This "day sailing" is fun. Instead if a bruising 20-hour overnight passage, we did a leisurely five and one-half hours down Biscayne Bay and into Cove Sound.
We're anchored at 25°19.860′N 080°17.736′W, not far from Pumpkin Key.
Tomorrow we expect it could …
That wasn't so bad. While we plan for a lot of things to go wrong, we try to make sure nothing happens. And in this case, almost nothing happened. Almost. It's about 100 miles. At 6 knots, that's just 16 hours. That means we can't really leave until 15:00 …
It's crowded. And noisy. But. Secure and we can walk ashore. It's not what we had hoped for, but it's really helpful.
Docked at the Harborage marina in Stuart. 27°12.702′N 080°15.451′W. Slip J-38.
Ready for food and showers.
Then, tomorrow …
Getting from New Smyrna Beach to Jensen Beach was a job and a half.
While the passage had its share of challenges, let's begin at the beginning.
This was not a lot of fun. It was about 90 minutes of dangerous, heavy labor. And the root cause wasn't …
We had some problems. Some we solved, some we didn't solve. We had some disputes; they're resolved now. I think.
In the morning, I found that when the dinghy's fuel tank is COLD, it doesn't leak. So we started the day by going ashore. We do love Cumberland Island.
The Feb 8-9 weather window was not open quite as wide as we like.
It was cloudy leaving Charleston, but flat seas and light breezes. After a few hours of motoring along, I realized we had a serious problem.
During my afternoon nap (CA's watch) I sorted it out. For …
Going to sea requires a bit of humility. If things go wrong, a problem rapidly escalates to absolute catastrophe. Of course, Murphy's Law applies here — anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Did Murphy describe Poseidon's essential cruelty and get all the credit by having a law named after …
Tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday have a forecast of rain. More than that really. We're looking at this forecast for Zone AMZ137:
"GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING"
That's alarming.
The whole RED-ALL-CAPS styling really adds to the sense of impending doom.
And …
New Bern. The tangle of bridges and marks here is pretty crazy. We have many bars of AT&T connectivity, so we think we can synch our various photo albums, Kindles, and cloud storage.
We'll be waiting here, we think, for almost a week. The weather outlook is great for …
Belhaven was pleasant. Very small, and also very alive.
The trip down the AIWW from Belhaven toward Oriental is perhaps the prettiest section of this journey. Did I take pictures? No. It's difficult to capture in a single image.
The Pungo river starts out wide; one could consider sailing down …
Belhaven Marina. It's very small, and a very narrow fairways. Great amenities.
Narrow.
Did I mention that the fairway's narrow?
Bigger boats have to watch the wind and tides to make a clean getaway. We're hoping for light air tomorrow so we can get out. It's …
We've gone, it seems, almost nowhere. We're anchored a few miles past SM 135 on the AIWW. Norfolk is SM 0. We've taken 7 days to go 135 miles. Not quite 20 miles per day.
Beaufort is near SM 205. We're about ⅔ of the way there. It may actually …
Manteo is a lovely vacation place, with a delightful town, and a terrible anchorage for a big boat. Shallow Bag Bay is well-named. It's shallow.
This has a strong contrast with the Deep Point at the south end of the Alligator River.
While I could find 7′ of water coming …
There are tricky anchorages and there are ill-advised anchorages. A bad anchorage transcends mere trickiness. And, there are dumb-ass approaches to ill-advised anchorages, which is where we are today.
Looking back at the start of this journey in "2021 South-Bound, Phases I and II", this was not on our plan …
We had anticipated hellacious (gusting over 20kt) wind today. But, this morning, the weather forecast was for moderate wind today, and the hellacious stuff was pushed back to Thursday night and into Friday.
This means we can cross the Albemarle and try to find an anchorage behind Durant Island. This …