Today I started to get settled in here in Stuart - Lisa was here with me and she got a rental car for her trip to Orlando and ultimately to fly home. i am going to add some of Lisa's emails to her friends and co workers (this will give a perspective from another person like my sister did).

Lisa said about Saturday and Sunday 11/7,8:

Arrived yesterday ((sat) afternoon and spent a pleasant few hours with my former HR Manager from FL-M who has been in the court reporting management business for past 5 yrs. Had a marathon day today on the boat. Left Jax about 7:15 am this morning and just got into the dock for the evening. Lots of "no wake zones" for Manatees, so had to go about 8 mph. Gassing up before we're done for the day. Went about 135 miles and staying in Titusville tonite. Still have lots of "chores" to do, incl cleaning dishes and reading charts for tomorrow's voyage. Tomorrow we're going to try to go the full rest of the way, about 100 more miles. Trying to beat the bad weather coming with Tropical Storm Ida.Just no fun if it rains on you! Plus, winds make the ride a lot bumpier. So, as you're toiling away making sure justice is being done for all mankind, think of me navigating the boat down the ICW!

Lisa said about Monday 11/9:

We MADE it! Had to perform man overboard rescue mission just before we reached our destination.....Redskins baseball hat (sentimental value and just because) blew off my head when I was out getting ready for dockage....Dad insisted we take a pass at a rescue....and, with relatively minimal effort (ok, more than minimal effort.....the boat hook only reached slightly past the water line, so we had to be right on top of it), we found success!! It was quite a trip...no way we could have made it without running behind another boat literally the entire way today (110 miles)...would have had to go half the speed and would have had to stop somewhere. So, the luck held out despite the weather... Now, just need to find a way to get to Orlando tomorrow thru the more traditional means of transportation -- that is planes, trains, and automobiles!!

My comments - so with a lot of luck and good weather we made it 2 days earlier than planned - i had my first visitors today (tuesday) from Maryland Yacht Club - PC(twice) Rick Stevens and First Lady(twice) Sandy Stevens - what a wonderful surprise and pleasure to see them. Maybe, it is time to establish the florida east coast version of MYC - i will think about it - any comments!!!!???? (please I am not competing with the florida west coast version). I will now try to upload some pics including one of rick and sandy.

take care and have fun from me in florida - not sure when the next update will be--------

short note to say WE ARE HERE - beautiful stuart - 2days adhead of schedule and no hurricane IDA - so if has to rain okay - lisa was a big help from jacksonville to here - here are the names and titles of the people that help make the trip possible and many thanks to all of them

Helen Gebler - "Master - All Around Chief Crew"
Ira Gebler - "Master Driver" (no Ira - not bridge captain = lol)"
Lisa Rosenthal - "Master Navigator"

more later - maybe after clean up (today was a bit rough 3-4 footers so things flew around) and a good meal at WAHOO

It is saturday morning and here i am in bright sunny florida - jacksonville that is - palm cove marina. question - it used to be that when you traveled south on I95 and crossed into florida they had complimentary orange juice at the rest stop - not so on the water or did they cut it out (politically incorrect for an "oj") = (LOL). Again, the trip was beautifully calm except for about 1/2 hour after leaving jekyll island - got clobbered in the sound (4' plus from the ocean that i was taking on the bow quarter). Once i was able to take it as a following sea things were fine - you should have heard the vhf radio chatter about the 2nd mate having to put the inside of the boat back together. Got into the marina about 1 pm just in time to see the blue angels practice overhead for today's show - can't wait to see the real thing - they are supposed to fly right over the boat. I hope to leave early tomorrow and make new smyrna beach - if so, i will be one day ahead of schedule - it is possible that i could be in stuart by this tuesday - now i have to look at what IDA is doing and possibly some noreaster - this may affect my progress. I am going to try and download some pics for the recent 2 days - note the freighter coming up the savannah river over the marshland and the mega yacht thunderbolt marina - now those are yachts.

take care and have fun

OOOOPS - it is now about 10 pm and i forgot about my blog so here it is - sweet and short (well maybe more short than sweet). i left hilton head harbor marina at 7 am this morning and arrived at jekyll island marina about 2:30 pm - about 125 miles. when done i had to refuel etc (like pump-out). the trip was uneventful - i am passing the same boats - they must start earlier than me - i am a day ahead of schedule so i will spend an extra day in jacksonville (rest/post pictures/and clean this boat - a lot going on with me doing it all) - on today's trip and after seeing many different boats i spent a lot of time daydreaming of what is the ideal boat and have concluded = back to the drawing board or just continue daydreaming - their is no ideal but i have ideas!!!!!!!???? I hope to post some pics tomorrow that will include megayachts in thunderbolt marina and a cargo ship entering savannah river over the land???

that is it for now - sleep tight - take care and have fun

I don’t have a great internet connection here so I am first doing this in word and then will copy it to the blogsite (I hope). I am here at the Hilton head marina right on the icw (hope that the passer by boats will stop this evening – nice place but nothing here. Another great day on the icw – left Charleston at 8:30 am and arrived here at about 1:30 pm – refueled and I am done for today – well never done – cleanup/prepare for tomorrow and retied the dinghy (????) – if I can get an early start tomorrow I am going to try to make Jekyll – about 125 miles. If that works the rest of the trip should be easy – then again so far I have been real lucky with good weather. Okay – this is a request – the fish that I am seeing I believe are bullnose dolphins not porpoise (any comments) – in any case they are still not jumping my wake yet – maybe that is a Florida thing. Their were many man made cuts that connect one river to another or what ever. About noon today fighter jets were flying over – believe that they were from the marine corps air station at brickyard creek. I took a picture of a yacht/ship that I believe was from London – if I can upload it I will (it was pretty big)

Btw they should rename the “mega dock” at Charleston City marina to “thruster dock” – that was all that one hears when these yachts are pulling out.

That is it for now – take care and have fun

Here i am at the mega dock in charleston city marina - i am probably the smallest boat here. i was pleading with the marina to make sure their were sufficient dock hands (single handling the boat and strong currents). g-d and his buddies were shinning again - no problem - will see what happens tomorrow - i am wegded in between two biggies and i need to get turned around - the dock hands say no problem - this is one of those ray brunell dilemas - will see how it goes. got here about 1 pm after another uneventful trip (oh someone asked to follow me - now how is that for the blind leading the blind - but he new nothing) met a lot of folks and it is great - they are starting to remember me and as you would guess i don't remember them - they usually recognize the boat name because for the most part i am passing them, calling on the radio - so far no complaints. once in charleston i got a courtesy ride to the grocery for needed provisions (soda/cream and misc) - it was a harris teeter and was great. kurt - i got your comment and since you are the man, helping dave derby would be great (LOL). got a chance to wash the boat today and it needed it. the dinghy remains a problem - unless i am at plane or idle it fills with water from my stern wake -12 mph is terrible - it does drain but i do get a lot of comments about the bathtub on the platform - so if anyone has ideas i am listening (now i just opened the barn door). according to my itinerary, i am supposed to make hilton head tomorrow - that is about a 90 mile run with probably a lot of slow areas, so tonight i will do some homework and may get up early tomorrow (well let's say about 8 ish) - the gps is absolutely fantastic - don't know how we did it with paper charts - this is actually fun - i am using the maptech book and periodically i put a sticky near the marker that i am passing - all this has worked well - now that is my techie report for today (admittedly it is my low techie report).

take care and have fun

This was a short day (HA) - 60 miles seems to be good for me and is about what i originally planned on (maybe i will be able to do longer days - will see). At 8:45 left Myrtle Beach Yacht Club and luck would have it at the Little River Bridge SC, I got behind a boat to do the Rock Pile. This 5 mile stretch is full of submerged rock and snags along the way so it was nice to follow a 55 footer = uneventful but it is obvious that caution is the word . the next stretch is the waccamaw river, about 24 miles of a beautiful curving river - it was real neat when i could open the boat up to about 25 mph and watch the scenery melt by. Today was cold and dreary - in fact i don't think that it got to 60 degrees and that is cold up on the bridge doing 25 mph. During much of the trip, i was constantly looking for floating logs and debris - saw plenty but didn't hit any and that is good. I arrived in Georgetown sc about 1 pm, refueled and was docked by about 2 pm. I am now going to check out the mechanics, clean up, rest for today, and tomorrow i am on to charleston sc.

take care and have fun

Hi Folks - i am here in north myrtle beach at the mrytle beach yacht club - good facilities and pricing -for me this is becoming a lot of work - it is 8:30 p.m. and i am just starting this - then i have to plan tomorrow's run to charleston sc (i hope). I have been very lucky with the weather and have been able to make good time. I left harbor village marina (just below the surf city bridge nc) at 8:30 this morning (thanks for the extra daylight savings time hour). the day was uneventful and the transit was calm. the interesting part was timing your arrival at various bridges so you didn't have to wait an hour for the next opening. this time i made it to all in time w/o the delay. More porpoise but not many and they just dove under the boat - no wake jumping like i saw a few years ago - hopefully that will change as i get further south. just south of snows cut i had to run around the dredging ops but at least they are trying to do something - at holden nc their were many shrimp boats - i think that i could have pulled in and gotten some real buys (no room on the boat). the pics are in reverse order (the top being the end of the day entering myrtle beach yacht club = busy entrance) - i am done for tonight so take care and have fun - please will someone show dave derby how to get on my blogsite (LOL).

jim