Date/Route/Crew/Time

Position

11-12-08: Waiting for a slip at the marina - anchored in Ashley River at Charleston, SC, at 0930 EDT. Docked at Charleston Maritime Center at 1300 EDT. We celebrated our safe voyage with mimosas and breakfast while at anchor waiting for our slip at the marina to open up.

11-15-08: We really like Charleston. It's mid-November and we're wearing shorts, the people are very friendly, the town is beautiful, and the food is fantastic. We were only planning to stay a couple days before we head out to Florida, but we decided we wanted more time to explore here so we're going to try to stay until Wednesday (Nov. 19). The dockmaster, Jeff, tells us that most people that come here usually plan to only spend a day or two but end up staying for a few weeks. We can see why. Coincidently, our slip-neighbors at the marina used to have a boat named "Mirasol" and they're heading to the same spot in Florida as we are, only they're planning to leave tomorrow.

11-18-08: Time to move on. We are planning to leave tomorrow around 1100 EST for St. Mary's, GA. It should take around 27 hours at 6 knots.

11-20-08: Overnight, Gregg tacked us back in towards shore. We were around 30 nm offshore and flirting with the gulf stream. Around 9 am, we decided to change our plans of trying to make landfall in St. Mary's partially because Jen was not feeling well and mostly because it was going to be impossible to get into port before dark. So, we ducked in at St. Simon's Island, GA, and opted for a very nice marina stay for the night. It was well worth the hot shower and good night's sleep. Not to mention that the marina left a newspaper and pastries on our deck in the morning. Nice.

12-1-08: St. Mary's was a nice stay. Services near the marina are greatly lacking, but the community (locals & boaters) made it well worth while. We were definitely starting to get itchy to leave as we watched all the boats heading for the ICW clear out a couple days ago, not to mention watching the laundry pile up and the fresh food on board dwindle. We had to wait for a weather window, though - we need two good days at sea since we are planning to go around 230 nm.

12-2-08: Peppy night. We were caught in our first squall around 3 am. We had 40+ knot gusts with sustained winds in the high 30's for about 45 minutes. Uh... the weather reports did not indicate anything like this was supposed to come through tonight.

12-3-08: Got in early - we were tied up by around 0730. After showers and a quick trip to the grocery, we came back to the boat and napped. The marina is OK, but very expensive considering they don't have free WiFi. But, we are in Florida.

12-4-08: The marina does have an outdoor pool and the weather was nice, so Quinn got to go swimming today. The water was a little cold, but he had a ball anyway.

12-17-08: Gregg's parents are visiting for a few days and helping us get ready for our next adventure.

12-20-08: We still have a lot of things to do before heading to the Bahamas, so we extended our reservation here for another week. We have the solar panels but Gregg still needs to install them, and the gel coat guy and the carpenter still need to finish their warranty work.

12-26-08: Our first Christmas on the boat was nice. We cooked a fancy dinner of roasted beef tenderloin, green beans with pancetta and sage, mashed potatoes and homemade cranberry sauce. Then after checking in with NORAD to see where Santa was, Quinn went to bed. Santa left all the presents on the settee in the salon just under the mast support (photos below), which was decorated like a Christmas tree (lights & garland). We had been calling it the "Festivus Pole", but decided we'd best call it a Christmas pole. After dinner on Christmas, we turned on some music and went outside to enjoy the 75+ degree temps.

1-1-09: We were in the perfect location for New Year's Eve on the boat. We could see the ball drop across the river by the Performing Arts Center, then the fireworks that followed were almost directly in front of us.