Month: November 2017

Continue reading “Boat Porn-The Naked Truth About Laa-Dee-Dah”

Dolphins we see almost every day. Same with seagulls and pelicans. What is more rare is running ten miles off the coast and getting a visitor. A few days ago we were off the coast of SC on a gray, overcast day. We were on the flybridge (enclosed and warm) and I saw a bird flying right for us. He flew over the front of the boat but never emerged off the back. Hmmmmm. Investigation showed a two foot tall bird clinging to our radar array.

Gary chased him off and he came right back. Consultation with our family avian expert leads us to think it was a glossy ibis that rode along for a good ten-fifteen minutes. He must have been tired with a long flight ahead.

While anchoring out the other night we saw a pair of Black Bellied Whistling ducks. Noisy critters kept buzzing our boat. But they sounded cool.

By far the funniest we’ve seen are the seagull “looters”. The pelicans were feeding one morning as we were leaving, dive bombing for fish. Each pelican had a seagull or two nearby. When the pelican brought up a fish the seagull would land on his back and try to steal the fish.

We arrived in Hilton Head the day after Thanksgiving just in time for the tree lighting and concert at Harbortown. We also snuck in another round of golf.

We decided to skip Charleston and anchored last night just northwest of Blackbeard’s Island in SC and now we’re headed to Brunswick GA for an overnight at a marina and some necessary provisioning. Amelia Island may be next on the itinerary but it’s pretty fluid depending on weather and what we feel like that day.

Although there is some planning involved we’re staying pretty loose. I’m edging Gary closer and closer to the Star Trek version of navigation “out there…somewhere”

So last time we checked in we were heading into Beaufort NC. A very pretty town and we managed to find a gem of a restaurant for dinner. If you’re ever there check out Aqua.

From Beaufort we motored to Wilmington to spend time with family and friends and then Bald Head Island where we played golf for the first time since leaving DC. A beautiful day with some of my favorite golf partners.

Bald Head Island is a really cool place. Good marina, restaurants, golf course and beautiful views. The light house was commissioned by Thomas Jefferson and is open to the public. The view from the top is gorgeous. And no, I didn’t climb all the way up, the kids did. (Thanks for the photos Grace and Amy!)

Nothing like going to sleep after a warm, calm, beautiful day and waking in the middle of the night to 32 knot gale force winds INSIDE a protected marina. That’s how fast things change on the water. Needless to say our departure for Myrtle Beach was delayed a day until the weather calmed down a bit.

We’ve settled into a comfortable routine working our way down the coast towards Florida. Next stops on the itinerary after Myrtle Beach are Georgetown, Charleston, Hilton Head, Jekyll Island and Amelia Island. Hopefully by then the weather will be warmer, we’ll play some more golf and I might even break out one of my new fishing rods.

Well it’s been an interesting few weeks since we left National Harbor October 19th. We took our time motoring down to Deltaville Boatyard over three days and arrived on the 21st. Between sailing regattas and pods of dolphins we enjoyed the trip.

We thought we’d be in Deltaville a week or so for anticipated repairs. One week turned into two. Then we were into week three and finally departed DBY Tuesday. The good news is that our “honey do” lists have gotten much smaller as we had plenty of time to clean and fix the things that we can do.

We spent ten days in a hotel while the boat was “on the hard”. My comment at the time was that the Laa Dee Dah is a boat, not an airplane. It isn’t supposed to be in the air. Just doesn’t look right.

We also met some lovely people on other boats waiting for repairs on their boats to be finished. Every day we checked in to see who would be the first to depart south. I think we were the first with another boat close on our heels.

Two days on the ICW and we’re now anchored just south of Coinjock, NC. Two days of rain, cold and otherwise miserable weather but we’re moving south so have decided not to complain too much. The days are short so we aren’t traveling as far each day as when we brought the boat up in June.

We’ll be on the ICW until Beauford NC when we’ll go offshore, weather permitting.