Images from St. Augustine

St. Augustine is a little town with a LOT of history.  Founded in 1565, it is considered the oldest European-established city in the continental US (who knew?!).  First explored by Ponce de Leon and later established by Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles - this town has remained true to her Spanish roots.  Terra cotta tiles, brightly colored buildings, cobblestone side streets and a bohemian artist history all combine to make this one very cool little stopover along the ICW.  Not to mention it is rumored to be the home of the Fountain of Youth.  While we didn't find a fountain of any sort, we did find a couple nice watering holes!

Historical figures are all over the place.  Here we have some Spanish Jesuit or something...

Beautiful old buildings with loads of character.

Art shops are around just about every corner.

If you ever visit, stop into the Mill Top Tavern and have a listen to our friend
Don - he's an amazing musician and has been playing there for over 30 years!

If you are a boater, this is like a boating thrift store on steroids.  You could spend HOURS in this place.
"The Sailors Exchange" - they have more than you can possibly imagine!

Like Popeye's attic!

Ahoy there!

Well said Buddah!!

Feels kinda like Spain!

We've shoved off the dock and now we're headed to an anchorage about 20 miles down.  

Love,

Brittany & Scott

Images from Hilton Head

Some images of our time in the Hilton Head area.  What an amazing place!  We LOVE South Carolina - it's full of beauty, nature and that unforgettable Southern' charm!  Scott's godparents, Al and Willa, have been AMAZING hosts (getting our slip, putting us up in a beautiful cottage, taking us out to lovely dinners...etc) and it's going to be very hard to leave tomorrow!

Rasmus right at home in Windmill Harbor.

The South Carolina Yacht Club at Windmill Harbor.

The inside of the beautiful Yacht Club

The Porch - would love to kick back with a few on here!  Just lovely!

The Bluffton Oyster Company - one of the last working oyster factories in the South

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Love,
Brittany & Scott

The Tale of the Panicked Mariner

The Panicked Mariner...his boat has been blurred to protect his privacy.  Ha.

After our docking extravaganza yesterday, we were happily on our way (albeit with thumping hearts) when all of a sudden we heard on the radio in a muffled, stressed-out voice, "Sailboat heading south?".  Scott and I looked at each other - then around the boat...there was another boat circling around out there.

"Is he hailing us?" I asked, confused.  It was a pretty strange way to hail another boat.  Then it came through again, "Sailboat in front of me heading South?".  Scott picked up the radio and answered "This is Rasmus, go to 17".  He did not go to 17 and then said, again in a very stressed voice, "Yeah, uh - are you guys heading South on the ICW".  Scott replied we were, and again told the man to go up a channel. Channel 16 is strictly a hailing and monitoring channel - not only is it poor form to carry on a conversation on this channel, if you chat for very long on it the Coast Guard will get on to sternly remind you.  We are constantly shocked at how many boaters don't know this.

Anyway...

He finally switches to 17 and says, "Yeah, uh...I don't know these waters and I...I just don't feel comfortable - would it be okay if I follow you?"  We replied that while we too didn't "know" the waters we had charts and a chart-plotter and would be happy to lead the way for him.  We did, however, think this was pretty strange.  Was he just planning to "follow" other boats all the way South?!

So we are motoring along - enjoying the beautiful day and the company of Scott's wonderful godfather Al, when again we hear on the radio something to the tune of, "Uh, yeah...sailboat I'm following - do you know if I can anchor to your port side over there in that shoal?" He sounded pretty panicked.  We all looked at each other confused.  "Go to 17" Scott replied.  They both did, and Scott continued, "Is everything okay?" Our panicked mariner replied, "No...god, no...my damn engine is smoking and I need to shut her down...I think I ran out the coolant, might need to add some wat....OH SH**!  Oh dammit!  The engine just died.  Oh crap....(more expletives)"

Again, Scott and I look at each other because a) we feel bad for this guy and b) he obviously doesn't know what he is doing.

We tell him we'll circle back around to help him out.  I get on the radio and ask him if he has Boat US towing insurance and he replies that he does.  We had originally thought about towing him ourselves, but quickly realized that doing so was unnecessary as there was no immediate "emergency".  Better to wait for Boat US.

"Oh crap..." he came back, "I don't know what to do... Aren't we in a shipping lane? I don't want to be swept out to sea".  Our charts and chart-plotter indicated we were not in a shipping lane (in fact, zero commercial vessels come through the sound we were in) and the current would be nil for the next 3-4 hours.  He was fine.  I called TowBoat US for him - and they said they'd be to him within the hour.  I felt bad just leaving a panicked person alone - so we told him we'd just sail around for a while (in case of emergency) until Boat US came with a tow.  Sometimes just the presence of another boat in the vicinity can ease one's nerves.  We've been there.

And that is what we did.

We figured we put a little coinage in the Karma bank.

Love,
Brittany & Scott

Images from Oriental

We're thinking of coming to Oriental, NC for every Thanksgiving now.  This one was just way too much fun.  Tiki bars, fried turkey buffets, and boat people make for one heck of a good time.  Did I mention it was 71 degrees and we were in flip flops?  Yeah.  That helped too.  With no further ado, here are a few images to capture this special place they call "Oriental".

The Oriental Marina.  It was THE place to be.

We made VERY merry at the Toucan bar.  And I mean, VERY merry.

A little house, in a little town.

Some bikes outside the local coffee house, "The Bean".  This was THE place
to be in the a.m.  It seemed the whole town was there.  So fun.

Lots of industrial fishing here.

A huge thanks to my mom and dad for taking such good care of us and coming out to see us.  We had such a great time!

Love,
Brittany & Scott

Images from the ICW

While the "Dismal Swamp" route sounded very appealing* - we opted for the faster, less scenic Virginia cut of the ICW.  Not much going on but still managed to snap a few nice pictures to give you a sense of what we are seeing day to day.

Just your everyday pelican in an Industrial world.  But still, a pelican - and
where there are pelicans - there is warm weather!

Norfolk, VA - home to the largest Naval Base in the world.  Lots of things that
go "boom" on these boats!

Cruising along the ICW.  

Ticking off markers as we head South.

Beautiful Day.

So many birds of prey swooping and flying overhead.  Wonderful to watch.
Yesterday, we saw THREE bald eagles playing with each other in front of the boat.
As soon as we neared them, they retreated to their perches high up in the trees and watched us
go by.  Beautiful.

Love,

Brittany & Scott

* All sarcasm aside, the "Dismal Swamp" route is supposed to be prettier than the route we chose.  It is also supposed to be significantly slower and shallower, which is why we went the way we did.

The Place Where Night Ends, and Day Begins

Our alarms went off at 4:30am this morning and we were up and out by 5am.  We made it a point last night to check the oil (engine and transmission) so that we didn't have to do it this morning (one of our daily chores that takes a good 15-20 minutes when it's all said and done).  The reason for our early departure is that we are hoping to get to Belhaven, NC - a good 70 nautical miles away (a nautical mile is 1.15 statute miles for all you non-sailors).  At our speed of about 6.5 knots we should get there between 4 and 5pm - just in time to meet my mom, dad and brother Kevin for Thanksgiving tomorrow!  Very excited about this.

Here's what our morning looked like:

Where night ends, and day begins...

Glorious! The sun stretching her arms!

To any would-be cruisers out there looking for tips - sailing inland in the dark is a piece of cake IF you have a good (and I mean VERY good) spotlight.  We could not have made the twisty-turvy pass to the Albemarle Sound without one (there is a narrow channel here with 4-5 foot shoals on either side - very little room for error).  While there are plenty of markers to guide you, many are not lit and a spotlight greatly helps in finding these.

Love,
Brittany & Scott

We are in the ICW

The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a water passage that begins in Norfolk, VA and ends in Key West, FL.  It is an inland waterway, providing boats who don't want to go "off shore" in the Ocean (namely around Cape Hattaras, the "Graveyard of the Atlantic") another option to enjoy heading south in the relative safety of protected water.

Yesterday we entered the ICW in Norfolk, VA and started on our merry way when we realized two things:
1)  We didn't know where we were going (the Maptech cruising guide* we have is totally useless) and thus,
2)  We needed a better cruising guide...STAT.

So we turned around and headed back to Norfolk to find the famed "Skipper Bob's" cruising guide to the ICW (on the suggestion of many of our cruising friends).  Holy heck are we glad we did!  We really would have been in for it had we not (Bullet: Dodged!).  Bridge schedules, anchorages, warnings, updates, town listings, amenities...all sorts of great info in this little book.

We have also heard that you are guaranteed to run aground in this "safe" waterway - so we thought ahead and bought Boat US Towing Insurance.  It was $150, but if we were to get a tow without insurance it could cost us upwards of 2K, so we figured better be safe than sorry.  The math was just too compelling.  Look at us - all grown up and prepared!

ICW - bring it!**

Love,
Brittany & Scott

*A cruising guide is like a "Lonely Planet" for the water.
**Just kidding!!!