Days 21 & 22 our voyage "Headed to the Keys" 12/ 30-31/12

Happy New Years Eve!!! We are docked at a small marina in downtown Islamorada (Spanish for Small Island) in the Keys!! We have had a few rough nights at anchor as the wind has been brutal and sleeping has not been good and I am afraid to sleep when the wind is this rough after what happened a few days ago in Key Largo !!!! Last evening trying to set our anchor in Marathon we were blown again on a mud flat filled with limestone !! Thank you Sea Tow for a quick response and getting us to a safe place to anchor for the night. Again a rough night at anchor and no sleep!!
Sooo this afternoon we docked at Coral Bay Marina and have already much enjoyed this small island!! Lexie has sooo enjoyed getting off the boat and meeting other dogs!! She is such a social butterfly she cant wait for us to dock so she can get off often on to land!! Ha We rode our bike today for several hours and stopped at a fishing marina to see the catch the fishing tours brought in and in many of the local shops!!! We hope to see some fire works tonight as we are at a prime spot to see them. We are told they set them off out in the bay here from a boat !!! Should be nice if it is not too late. Rodney and I are both exhausted and will probably sleep in the New Year !!! We wish all of you a Blessed New Year!! Love to all, Fran
PICS: Rod at the wheel this morning freezing!! (By 12 noon it was 75 degrees!! But the wind is still 30 miles and hour)

Day 20 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/29/12

This is our 4th day in Key Largo!! We have enjoyed very much even with the mechanical problems we have had here!! A wonderful young man named Britt came today and he had the right tools to do the job and change out our propellers for us!! We will bring the damaged one back to Georgetown with us and have repaired (always need a spare)!! We have learned through this experience we will have a box mounted on the front of the boat when we travel that has all of the tools needed to work on anything needing repair. We left all the tools in the storage unit back home!! Lesson learned!! i have a great video of Rod in his diving suit but can't post on the blog!! Work can still be fun! ha
Soooo tomorrow morning as soon as we get Lexie to land for her morning walk, we will pull up anchor and takeoff again!!! We have already been told Islamorada and marathon is another great place to spend a few days!! We will be heading that way!!! I am posting a pic of the propeller the guy changed out today!! Wow I was so surprised how bad it was damaged!! Again a very valuable lesson learned!! Still having a great time!!! Love to all, Fran
Pic: Look at that propeller!!! This is the sunset we see each evening!!

Day 19 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/29/12

Day 3 of our stay in Key Largo!! By now we know this town pretty good !! As of today we rode another 6 miles on our bike to find a Napa Auto Parts as we were told they had the tools Rod needs to change the propeller on one or our motors!! As we suspected, we did in fact almost destroy the starboard propeller ( the right one) when we got blown on to the mud flat a few nights ago. We had diving gear so Rod went down and evaled the damage and we went in search of tools to change out the propeller, we do have a spare one, just did not bring the tools needed to do the job!! He worked on trying to get the old propeller off for 4 hours or better and NO GO!! It would not budge!!! Luckily the young guy at Napa Brian gave us the name and number of a friend of his that specializes in this kind of work, sooo we gave him a call!! He will be here at 9 am in the morning to assist with changing out the propeller and hopefully that will go without to much difficulty!! On the way back from Napa we saw a fresh vegetable market and bought beautiful tomatoes, red bell peppers, and cucumbers, and some bananas!! Yum!! Still had a beautiful day, 80 degrees, sunny and a great view in the harbor where we are anchored. I fed Rod Pizza for supper he is exhausted !! Probably to bed early tonight as we both have had a long day!! Lexie still loves her dinghy rides to shore a few times a day and get to play with all the other dogs in the park!! She is doing much better just hates the loud motor noise of the diving equipment and wanted to sit in my lap most of the time, or loves hiding up under the front of the boat in the storage area!! She feels safe there.
Pray for repairs to go well tomorrow and we will be on our way farther south by Sunday!! I am looking forward to Marathon and Isalamarda for a few days!!
Love to all, Fran

Day 18 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/27/12

Last night was one of the worst nights we have had on our entire journey!!! We were anchored in a small cove just at the north end of Key Largo. About 1am Rodney was awakened by severe pouring of rain and all our windows were open!! Lots of water to be cleaned up, but he did it and never woke me up!!! I was dead asleep!!! I was awake several times after that to our boat tossing and rolling about!! We were talking and said man it sure is rough tonight!!! WELL I woke up again at 4:10am to go to the bathroom, and Rodney said go look and see if we are still stable. When I looked out the window in our living room we were about 50 feet from the trees, which means we had move almost a half mile from where we were anchored!! We jumped Into some sweatpants and sweatshirts as the wind is still blowing 20 miles and hour and proceed to get our boat out of the mud it was now sitting on!! We decided to try and get to a better cove for stability and moved on down the waterway about 3 miles and found a better place to anchor and stay the rest of the night!!!!
We went back and tried to rest a little until the sun came up, then we made coffee, pulled up anchor and traveled on into the city of Key Largo and found a wonderful harbor that we were able to have great access to the city and dinghy docks!!, What a beautiful place!!!!! We got Lexie to shore this morning for a nice long walk around the area. And then we took our bike to town for a 6 mile ride or so!! We had breakfast at Arbys!! woohoo!! ( it is the only fast food on the island) We went to Kmart, (oh what fun), and bought some things we needed!! Then to Publix grocery store for a few groceries!! You buy only what you really need as we had to carry what we bought In my backpack or in our basket on the bike!! We have a tandem bike so only one basket!!!
After dropping our purchases back off at the boat we decided to take another tour down to the Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park!! It is a world famous for its protected coal reefs!! What a wonderful day just to be a tourist!!! We rode our bike all through the park and enjoyed The aquarium at the park we had taken us a picnic lunch of cheese and fruit and bottled water so we sat at a nice shaded picnic table and enjoyed our goodies!!
We will be here another day as we are going to clean and wash our boat, I will wash clothes and do these housekeeping things we need to do but do plan to put our Kayak in the water tomorrow as soon as we can as I am ready for a paddle around this lagoon!, It is beautiful!!! Rod has to get under the boat tomorrow to see if there is any damage to our propellers when we went aground last night!! Got some pics today but only on my camera!! Sorry I still can not get them to the blog!! The sun rise and sunsets are awesome!! It's 80 degrees here !!!! I'm lovin it!!!
Blessings to all , Fran
Pics: Key Largo state park, and Rod sporting his new headlamp for reading and working !! it's a gadget!!

Day 16 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys"

Merry Christmas!!! Well this has been the most different Christmas Rodney or I have ever experienced!!! Traveling down through southern Florida on Christmas Day 78 degrees, sunny and everybody that owns a boat is in the water today!!! Busy busy waterway today!! gave us many opportunities to wave and wish lots of people Merry Christmas!! people in swim suite and Santa hats!! Too Funny!!! We again can not get over the magnificent homes there are down the waterway here!! Got several pics today of some homes and HUGH high-rises!! just don't think I could live on the 50th floor of a building!!! My aboard historian is now looking up the 2 lighthouses we saw today to get information about their history. We finally anchored just barely north of the main part of Miami. We go right through downtown Miami and should, baring any issues, be in the keys tomorrow!!! The big Biscayne Bay is large and long after we leave Miami to get to Key Largo!! Could be a very boring trip tomorrow after all we have experienced the last few days! But anxious to get to the blue clear waters of the keys!!! Hope all has had a wonderful Christmas!! We have enjoyed talking to our kids and grandchildren today enjoying Christmas via phone and FaceTime!!! Love to all, Fran
Pics!! Lighthouses, high rises, !!!

Day 17 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/26/12

After a wonderful long journey we anchored this afternoon at the north end of KEY LARGO!!! We finally made it to the Keys!! We are spending the night at a small cove called Thursdays Cove!! We plan to cruise on into the city area of Key Largo tomorrow morning and see if we want to stay a while or mosey on down to another Island!! We will just take it as it comes!!! Great weather all the way through the Biscayne Bay from Miami to Key Largo 78 degrees and sunny all day. We traveled a total of 68 miles today. The water is so clear we could watch the dolphins swimming under the water along side the boat.
Saw 2 lighthouses today way off in the distance Rod said they were the Cape Florida and Cary's Fort Reef Lighthouse. He is studying the history of them now! (of course that is not surprising)
I told Rodney this evening I am ready to do some playing and sightseeing!!!
I really want to scuba dive and snorkeling by News Year !!! I would be happy to put our Kayak in the water and paddle around!!!
Blessings to all, Fran
Sorry no pics tonight it is had to take pictures when you are in the middle of the ocean!!!
I will have pics to share from my camera of the lighthouses later!!!

Day 15 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/24/12

It's Christmas Eve!!! Well our stumbles have caused us not to get to the keys by Christmas but we will keep floatin till we get there!!! I have discovered today where all the rich people live!! Palm Beach, Florida!! Per my historian on board. Even in the late 1800's socialites were headed south. By 1918 the Everglades club was built, shortly after, the Biltmore Hotel, which prompted more politicians and merchants to move south to this area. I thought I had seen some beautiful homes the last week or so but today you are talkin Multi million dollar homes!! It is about 30 some miles of waterway just to get through the Palm Beach area, it is Hugh!! One of our highlights today was we were within 200 yards of the 1860 Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse. Its just before we got into Palm Beach. They had it decorated with hugh bows!! (Pics attached). We traveled about 68 miles today and now anchored just outside of the south end of West Palm Beach at an Island called Fisherman's Island !! Its a great place to go for a walk with Lexie!!! That has to be our first priority around 5pm or so!!!! We have had a lot of waterway traffic today which gave us many opportunities to wave and tell people Merry Christmas!!! Our Christmas Eve dinner consisted of a salad and a baked potato which is much less than what we have at Wanda and Mark Singletons which has been our Christmas Eve tradition for 15 years or more!! We did call and wish them a Merry Christmas and had to see what we were missing out on this year!! We do miss them!!
Looking to have a great Christmas on the water tomorrow, just me and Rod and Lexie!! And we will be calling our family and friends to wish all Merry Christmas !!! Love and Blessings to all, Fran
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!
PICS: Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, and a gorgeous sunset!!!!!

Day 14 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/23/12

Oh Man !! It sure is good to be going again our 4 day stop was good but we are both sooooo excited to be going again!! Of course my Daddy always said we loved to smell gas burn better than anybody he knew!!! Ha. A beautiful ride today from Melbourne Fla to Ft. Pierce Fla about 75 miles. We have anchored at Boot Toe Island across from Ft Pierce shipyard. The weather has turned warm and sunny and we wore shorts most of the day but when the sun went down I needed my sweatpants on for the dinghy ride to shore for Lexie to do her thing!!
Dolphin are abundant everywhere. They even swim around the dinghy!!!
Fort Pierce as I just learned from my aboard history buff was once called the "city of sunrise" !! The average winter temp here year round is 60-80 degrees. it as also the original home of the Navy Seals!! Edwin Biney was from here and was the founder of Crayola Crayons!! Wow got to love that history!!
We have been told this needs to be a stop on our way back home on a Thur, Fri. and Sat as there is a BIG farmers market (year round veggies here) and a craft fair every Thur and Fri and a Motorcycle parade and show every Sat afternoon and evening!! We will be back!!!
Christmas is almost here I really want to be in the Keys Christmas Day and we should make barring any stumbles!! Love to all and a blessed Christmas!!!! Fran
Praying for Triston this evening as yesterday he broke his R-clavicle!! What a Christmas gift!!
Feel better soon sweetie!!! I Love you!!!
Pic Sunset at Ft Pierce!!! And Lexie sunning herself!!!

Days 11,12,13 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys" 12/20,21,22/12

It is 7:15 pm on Dec 22 !!! it's almost Christmas!! We have been docked at Titusville Marine in Titusville Fla for the past 4 days waiting on parts to repair our water pump on one of the motors. The mechanic went ahead and refurbished the other motors pump as we knew it would not be far behind in failing also!! But today around 1:30pm we untied our home hugged, kissed and wished a Merry Christmas to our friends Jim and Paula and again we were headed south on our way to the keys!! We had a great time the last few days sight seeing and also was able to do some cleaning and and maintenance that is always needed!! We both were so excited to get out and going again felt great to be floating and headed south!!! We have had some cold weather and the wind died down some this afternoon!! We are anchored out in a bay not too far from Melbourne, Fla. Lexie has been for her dinghy ride over to the grass and supper cooked and dishes done!!! Yea!!! time to sit back and relax a bit and finish the book I started yesterday!!! Since we left late we only got in about 30 miles in today, but that does put us a little farther south!! Love to all, Fran
I have attached a few pics first is Cape Canaveral, and some of the Manatee!! I have some great pictures of the many Manatee at the marine they were always there, always waiting on a drink of fresh water. I can't seem to get a good pic with the phone or the iPad. Can't wait to show the kids!! Got some of Pawpaw rubbing their bellies!!! Toooo cool

Day 10 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys" 12/19/12

Today was still spent evaluating the water pump issue as the I said yesterday we replaced the battery that was giving us problems, but the water pump was still not sure what condition it was in. But late this afternoon it was confirm we were going to have to replace or possibly refurbish the water pump. So what a better place to be stranded here with our friends Paula and Jim!! I signed us up for another 2 nights here at the marina. Lexie was thrilled as she loves land, there is a great dog park with many dogs her size to play with ( the park fences are divided by dog size) it's cool! The Manatee lay around all the boats most of the day just waiting for fresh water to come their way!! Its really meet to see them beg for water!! Paula and Jim have been wonderful to help us with arrangements of mechanics, tools we did not have and of course sight seeing we have enjoyed a lot!!! We went to Marine land driving trail today lots of gorgeous birds native to this area all protected in this wildlife sanctuary. Paula and I hit a few thrift stores and consignment shops then the guys took us to eat seafood and we had rock shrimp(native to Florida). They were great and so was the company!! We then went walking to a large park where Paula has made friends with the squirrels, and feeds them by hand!! We laugh as when your 60 feeding the squirrels is entertainment !! ha. Soo we will see what the mechanic is able to do with our needed repairs and make a decision as to when we leave here!!!
Pray for good news and an easy repair!! Love to all, Fran
Sorry no pics!! All the pictures are in my camera and downloaded on my laptop!! Still don't know how to get them to my IPad!! I'll keep trying!!

Day 9 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/18/12

December and I wake up to 70 degree mornings!!! I could get use to this!!! Had a beautiful morning ride in the dinghy to walk Lexie over on the Island where we went last night to walk. Dolphin so plentiful they were following the dinghy waves!! How awesome!! We planned to get to Titusville as early as maybe 12 noon to be able to do some minor repairs on a water pump and plan to replace a battery that is giving us some issues. The trip was was un-eventful and did have sightings of a few Manatee!! Not close enough to see really good 😢. We arrived at Titusville Municipal Marina as planned around 12 noon and was able to dock just a few boat down from Jim and Paula our friends we planned to meet here!! Jim and Rod went right to work deciding what need to be done to our water pump and pulled out the old battery (which was Hugh, it was the size of 3 regular car batteries). Jim had already lined up for us to go get a new one and they drove us along with the old battery for disposal to the interstate battery place and wah-la, a new power source!!! We have decided to stay another day and night as we will probably not see them on our way back for they will be going south the first of January. Although our paths could cross then. We then took them to a great local Mexican Restaurant for dinner!! Peach Margaritas!! YUM!! We plan to sight see tomorrow and go to Marineland tour and to Cape Canaveral. Looking forward to that.
But highlight of today!!! We were docking the boat an had just tided up the lines and Jim said come look Fran you are being greeted!! There they were 3 HUGH Manatee drinking the fresh water our boat was giving off!! I tried to get a pic but hard to see. I will attach what I got. We have seen many as you walk round the dock area they just swim around the boats!! TOOOO Cool!!!
Got a big exciting day planned tomorrow. Rod is exhausted and worked all day!! Bedtime soon !!
Love to all!! ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!! Fran

Day 8 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys" 12/17/12

Wow !! I do believe we are in Florida and far enough south to see some beautiful sunshine!!! We shed a lot of clothes today as you will see in the pics below Rod was with out a shirt several hours today!!! We pulled up anchor about 8:30 am after another nice morning walk with Lexie on the island. Fort Matanzas was a nice area and Rod enjoyed learning the history of the old Fort.
If you have ever been to Daytona, well one thing I can say is it is a very rich city!! The Multi-million dollar homes on the waterway was breath taking!!! We were able to hear cars running over at Daytona speedway, we love NASCAR !! Again we have seen many signs saying slow wake Manatee area. But yet we have not seen even one!!! We will keep looking!!! We dropped anchor at New Smyrna Beach about 4|30pm traveling 55 miles today. We were against the tide most of the day so travel was a bit slower than we hoped.
Planning to anchor in Titusville tomorrow to meet with our friends Jim and Paula (we meet them at our home port several months ago). We may stay a few days as we need to do some service work on a water pump and a may need a new battery. Oh we'll that's life!!
We sat on the back deck after dinner and enjoyed the dolphins playing around the boat and the lights of Daytona we had just drove though !! It has been a good day!!! Christmas is almost here I hope all are getting ready!! Blessings and love to all, Fran
🚤 Pics Rod, City of Daytona, Lexie, and one in her security cave!!

Day 7 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/16/12

What a beautiful say!!! We left Palm Cove Marina about 8|30 am this morning. We woke up about 7am and it was really foggy so we thought well we will just hang out for awhile, but shortly it was gone and away we went!! The water was calm and it was about 65 degrees !! By 10am we had short sleeves and all the windows up on the bridge where we drive the boat!! Palm Cove Marine is just out of Jacksonville Beach so coming down the waterway we saw some of the most incredible homes ever. 95% had a pool and most had waterfalls and unbelievable landscaping. We were in awe for almost 2 hours !!!! Many dolphins per usual all day and signs saying watch for the manatees but I searched all day and never saw one!!! As we came into St. Augustine harbor we had to wait for the swing bridge to open as it only opens on the hour and half hour, but what and wonderful place to have to wait and sit!!! The harbor was so beautiful. We saw the Hugh 300 ft cross that is at a park and the fort both of which we had toured several years ago when we took Mom with a church group there. Lots of memories and we have again decided this will be a few days stay when we make the return visit!! We came on past St Augustine and found a great anchoring spot near Fort Matanzas and old Spanish fort build in the 1500 to protect the lower portion of St Augustine. Took a dingy ride to land for a walk with Lexie!! She is getting used to the dinghy and the routine to get off the big boat to the dinghy!! ha. Then rode to see the old Fort, but too late to take a tour. But of course my history buff came back to the boat and while I fixed a chicken casserole for dinner he gave me a history lesson on the Fort!!! After dinner we sat on the back porch of the boat and enjoyed the lights and dolphins surrounding the area!! What a peaceful sight!! We have been soooo blessed with such a wonderful trip !!! Love to all, Fran
A few pics of St Augustine of the lighthouse and the Fort, and the draw bridge we had to wait for today!!!

Day 6 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys". 12/15/12

Left Jekyll Island around 8am this morning. Met some very nice people here. It would not be a bad place to live. Only about 10 miles down the waterway we saw on our map we were entering Florida!!! Yea we finally made it!!! Warmer day 60 degrees or so, we were able to open the windows and enjoy the weather some. I spent lots of time today on the computer doing emails and paying bills! yea they still have to be done!! We saw lots of dolphins today and many white pelicans!! Very unusual as ours at home are all grey. They were to far away to get pictures but could see them well with binoculars!! Rough currents in the water today made driving a lot of work. Rod was exhausted after several hours. Then about 3 miles past Jacksonville, I lost some of our maps on the computer!!! Where they disappeared too ??? Frustrated and tired we chose to dock at a small marina Palm Cove Marina just south of Jacksonville. After docking and of course letting Lexie run and do her thing, I made salmon patties and marinara rice for dinner and then we sat and worked on our maps for tomorrow's journey !! Finally had to call a friend we had met at Harborwalk Marina (our home marina). Jim and Paula Spence were very helpful and got my maps reloaded!! Sooo looks like we are ready to roll again tomorrow. Overall a good day it could have been a lot worse! So again Rod is now asleep, i am headed for a hot shower and will be there soon!! Bed at 10pm? I never get to bed that early. Its been fun!! Love to all!! Fran
PS Sorry no pics today!!! Got a few on my IPhone and got to send them to my IPad to post. Maybe tomorrow!!

Day 5 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys"

We we are almost through Georgia and although it is a beautiful state via the water, marsh land looks just like it does in Murrells Inlet. During the night last night our anchor broke loose twice due to 25 mile an hour wind and extreme tidal surge!! We were up about 1:30am moving the boat off of an oyster bed and resetting the anchor!!! Rod could not go back to sleep BUT I DID !!! When the sun came up he woke me up, made my coffee, God blessed us with a beautiful sunrise after a long night, Rodney said come on lets roll!! What an eventful night!! Not see much sun today and we decided about 11 am that tonight was going to be a docking night to get on land for a while and also had a few minor things on the boat that needed some work. So about 2pm we docked at Jekyll Harbor Marina at Jekyll Island, Ga. What a wonderful dock master and dock hand Terri (a woman!!) was great!!! Filled up with gas 196 gals. This also included gas for our generator!! This is the first time EVER I have bought that much gas in a vehicle. But of course Rodney he does that daily on the tour boat!!! And also filled all our water tanks.
We were offered a courtesy car to ride the island but chose to ride bikes instead. Rode about 3 miles on some of the 20 miles of bike trails on this island. Beautiful island, nice people and the weather was great. We visited a small IGA grocery store and bought veggies, and Rodney found boiled peanuts and could not,resist!!! We worked on a few things on the boat let Lexie run and walk on a long trail there at the marina, (she soooo enjoyed). A good breakfast for supper (eggs, bacon, grits and toast). We were ready for a good nights sleep. Tried to watch some TV but just too exhausted so went down for the night!! Another blessed day and tomorrow we will see Florida!!!
Love to all, Fran

PS. Here are a few pics!!!

Day 4 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys" 12/13/12

COLD!!! That's a great word for today!! Thank God, no rain but from what I have seen on the weather, the whole east coast is cold!!, Well it is December and last week in Georgetown it was 78 degrees!! We have traveled 68 Miles today and most of it has been in marshland. So,other than seeing a beautiful place called Isle of Hope just south of Savannah, we have not seen much, a few dolphin and many seagulls following the boat!! Lexie thinks that is a real treat!! Good day to wash clothes and clean house a little. I thought this was vacation!! ha. Oh I forgot we brought the house with us!!! We threw out anchor out of Savannah about 68 miles just on the back side of Blackbeard Island. This is south of Sapelo Sound still in good old Georgia (now go find that on a map!!). We are now sitting on our back deck after a dinghy ride to a small island for Lexie to do her thing and run run run!! She had a blast and got all sandy chasing the birds!! So I guess it is bath time now!! Rod and I are drinking coffee and sitting on the back deck enjoying the evening and hoping to see a sunset. BUT as it has been all day, we have not even seen the sun!! We still know that the sun will shine again and we await it patiently !!
Love to all, Fran
Attached are a few pics: Rod working his paper charts as he still does not trust our new computer program to lead us!! One of Lexie's ride to dry land!! And the island she played on this evening. This is new for me so I will keep trying till I get it right!!!

Day 3 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys"

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!!! that's all we saw today. Cold too!!! The ride in the dingy this morning was cold and wet but grass is a must for Lexie !!! Just will not pee on anything else !! Ha. We saw lots of marsh land but the we finally made it to Savannah!! What a beautiful town!! We already decided we will be back here to spend a few days for sight seeing. BUT the tour into Savannah was a wrong turn to heading south on the ICW!! But if we had to get lost it was a wonderful place to do it!! ha. We went 91 miles today that was including the 23miles coming back to the place we made the wrong turn, so it was a good travel time day!!! All this rain and still we saw many dolphin and I have pics of seagulls following the boat and they were loving the cat food I was throwing off the back of the boat!! Simple things are fun when you are floating down the waterway!!! We are still enjoying each others company and not yelled at each other much!! Still looking forward to some Florida sunshine. They tell us it's there!! Be there soon!!! Love to all , please pray for us and better weather soon!! Fran

Day 2 of our voyage "Headed to the Keys" 12/11/12

Day 2 went well!!!  Very foggy and over cast all day!! The ICW is beautiful so hard to describe how marsh land and oyster bed can be beautiful but they were even though the sun did not shine all day !!! Again the dolphins were plentiful all day and always came and played in the wake of the boat!! We saw 2 bald eagles that were the biggest I have ever seen. We dropped anchor about 3:30 pm as the rain was headed our way and we want to get Lexie to land to potty before it got here. Well we did not make it and got pretty wet but walking at a boat landing just outside of Beaufort, SC at a Pigeon Point was nice with big oak trees and walking trails. Again Lexie was not thrilled with the dinghy ride but getting to walk on land for her was worth it!!  ha. A good dinner and a hot shower was welcomed after getting back from our dinghy ride in the rain. Thanks to Melissa my BFF in MB we have HuLu Plus via her Roku device to watch movies and TV!!!  yea!!!  Thanks Melissa!!  I loved FaceTime with Allie, Sherry and even Mawmaw Kaye was there to wish us well on our venture just a while ago!!  Again today was another great day we have averaged about 75 miles per day!! We are sooo blessed!!!  
Love to all!!  Fran

Day 1 of our maiden voyage "Headed to the Keys"

Wow!!! What can I say!! This day has been a totally new adventure for us and really out of my comfort zone!!! The day started around 8am at Harborwalk Marina where we live in Georgetown, SC. Was foggy but 61 degrees when we untied our home The Sursum Corda and left Georgetown. The intercostal waterway was beautiful and dolphin were everywhere today. We have made this trip 2 other times to Charleston, SC in the past year so it was familiar territory. After making our way through the LARGE Charleston Harbor, we choose to anchor just outside of the Charleston Harbor on the ICW (intracoastal waterway). Well our first and Lexie's first time on the dinghy to get to land and potty was interesting. Rod thought it was wonderful and all went well. WELL, I think it could have went smoother and I learner a lot about how to get into and out of a small floating boat!! ha. Lexie did too (she really did need to go potty) so she was very willing to listen and do as we ask!!! After our walk,and it had gotten dark, back on the boat we came and did a few clean up details and I prepare great BBQ sandwiches and seasoned fries for dinner (thanks to Charlie and Pam we had some great NC BBQ). So wished I had been better prepared and taken a pic of the most beautiful sunset ever!! I will post one tomorrow night. Its 9:40 pm and Rod is snoring, Lexie's under the covers and 6am comes early!!! So better put my head on the pillow also!!! love to all of you!! Blessings!! Fran