Sail Felix

Well, the wind is blowin harder now 50 knots or there abouts, there's white caps on the ocean, and I'm watching for waterspouts. - Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season, by Jimmy Buffett It's finally here, another hurricane season. Although, as our friend Clyde reminded us recently, the daily thunderstorm can be more of a nuisance to us than the occasional big storm. The photo above is a squall line that rolled through here on Friday with enough wind and lightening to leave us feeling pretty happy to be tied up, and not at anchor. No photoshop on this one, just a boiling black line of angry sky. Lots of people have a real fear of hurricane season, but we've been living on boats and in the 'Sunshine' state long enough to have a healthy appreciation for them, and not a debilitating fear. As much as we like to joke about the inadequacies of NOAA and their weather forecasting, they and the National Hurricane Center have gotten pretty good at short term weather ...

You can not teach a crab to walk straight . -Aristophanes 450-385 BC Travelling the waterway from South Florida up to South Carolina has taught us a lot of different things, but one of the more surprising is the art of crabbing. Having grown up on the Chesapeake, I thought I knew a thing or two about catching crabs, but apparently I didn't understand the stealth involved. You see, the crabs down here have incredible eyesight, a requirement for surviving in the murky brown waters. The local crabbers have needed to develop some especially crafty techniques for working around the blue crab and stone crab's defense mechanisms. One of the first things that a boater notices when watching these crabmen is that the proper color of the float buoy attached to the pot is critical. Bright orange or yellow are out, the crab would see those from down below in his muddy lair in an instant, and avoid the baited pot like a Congressman avoiding his conscience. Likewise red, chartreuse, or any o...

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also . -Carlos Gustav Jung Among most boaters there is a continual debate over whether to use all chain anchor rode or a combination of some chain and rope. If your only anchoring is the occasional afternoon fishing or for a short dive, than the ease of needing to haul only a line and the attached anchor back on board makes plenty of sense. However, if like us you are usually anchoring for the night or for several nights, than all chain rode is the only way to go. It was 1994 and my buddy Wes and I were heading down to the Islands through the Intracoastal Waterway in our Chrysler 26 daysailer . With the enthusiasm and naive energy of a couple of guys in their early 20's with very little sailing experience, we headed down the muddy ditch with visions of crystal clear water in our future. 'Vagabond' was a centerboard boat with a flip up rudder and could travel through 2-1/2 feet of water, although we usually left the cent...

The brave die never, though they sleep in dust:Their courage nerves a thousand living men. -Minot J. Savage In honor of all those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Country, the crew of Felix took things slow and easy on Memorial Day and reflected on how we have so much because others gave so much more. We were able to watch the parade wind through downtown Beaufort this morning from our cockpit on the first sunny day in over a week, as if the sky finally relaxed and sighed with the ending cacophony of the Gullah Festival. Now that the drums and angry rap music have ended and a little peace has returned to the waterfront, my thoughts on the festival are still a little jumbled. It wasn't what I had expected, or rather what I had hoped for, since I don't feel that I really had much of a cultural experience. Rather than tasting traditional Gullah rice dishes or unique foods, the lineup was pretty much the traditiona l fair fare, with the normal roach-coach vans selling '...

In sharp contrast to the remote wilds that we've been cruising through the last few weeks, Felix and her crew are now part of the scenery that hundreds of tourists flock to stare at every day. The floating docks of the marina ride up and down along the sea wall of the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park, where daily busloads of geriatric tourists are deposited for a day of Bay Street shopping and dining. The American Spirit, a river cruise ship, seems to stop in and tie up to the seawall every few days as well. Stepping out into the cockpit, we're often greeted with the snapping of shutters as the tourists take pictures of all the pretty boats resting in the Marina. Now, I feel like Wally the Gator . It's been a good time to be tied up securely, since the area has seen gale force winds for the last 4 days which have been right on the edge of tropical storm force. We've taken the time to do all of the mundane but necessary tasks that have become due; changing the engine o...

" Money is not the only thing one has to spend; the other thing is life. The difference is that you never know how much is in the bank, or what your balance is. Your life is your inheritance. As soon as you realize this, you start trying to spend your life wisely ." - From "Advice to the Sealorn" by Herb Payson Having heard the commercials on the radio during our trip up, we were excited to arrive in Beaufort, SC in time for the weekend airshow. This event marked the first return to Beaufort for the elite Blue Angels since the tragic 2007 show in which Lt. Commander Kevin Davis was killed after apparently blacking out during a high-G maneuver. His plane crashed into a re sidential area and several people were injured, but only Davis perished. The near passes of Friday's practice session left us excited for the Saturday and Sunday shows. While the show was mostly rained out on Sunday, the weather cooperated on Saturday for a stunning aerial display. From several...

Livin on the road my friend, was gonna keep you free and clean. Now you wear your skin like iron, your breath's hard as kerosene . -Pancho and Lefty, by Townes Van Zandt Plenty of extra time this morning since we had to wait until about 7:30 for the tide to turn and start coming in. With the Savannah River in sight from our anchorage, we headed through the Elba Island Cut and forded the mighty Savannah with heads swinging side to side to check for approaching freighters. All was quiet and still without another boat in sight as we entered the Fields Cut north of the river and into South Carolina. Star was standing up on the bow with Chief on a leash, since he hadn't done his morning...duty before leaving and was acting restless. Beep,beep,beep!!! The depth sounder yelled at me. Our 10 feet of water had dropped to 7, and then back up to 8. I just had time to clear the alarm on the screen of the chartplotter when Beep,beep,beep!!! Bam! We came to a sudden lurching stop and Star ...

Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any; also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offends you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measure; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man, and say you didn't mean to. - Mark Twain, Advice to Youth speech, 15 May 1882 Two days in Kilkenny Creek was one day too many. Eager to head north again, Felix and the ubiquitous band of horse flies motored out of the creek just as the tide started to flow in. With lots of anchorage choices along the way, we left without any set destination. Early in the morning we motored through Hell Gate, which had been another of the dangerously shallow spots, except that they finally started dredging the cut and in fact the dredge was still in operation ...

OK, first another shot of Wally the Gator. What can I say, I like big animal sightings:-) You can click on the images and look at the larger versions if you're interested. We're now in Beaufort, SC but we missed a few days of posting our travels, so I'll catch us up to the present over the next couple of entries. We left Wally's leg early in the morning just as the tide was starting to come up and help lift us over the shallow Buttermilk Sound and Little Mud River, which turned out to be sort of anti-climatic because we went through right at high tide and had plenty of water underneath our keel. Our friends Sam and Ginger on 'Grace' led the way for us with their one foot shallower keel, and were kind enough to call back with any trouble spots later in the day when we were on the falling tide. We had decided to push on and do a 50 miler because high winds were forecast for the next few days, and we wanted to get the open Sappelo Sound and St. Catherine's So...

We missed a few days of blogging due to connectivity issues in the GA swamp. We've got them worked out now and have a few updates to post, most of which I'll do in the next few days. While we were anchored in Wally's Leg, we had a nice nature encounter with Wally himself. Wally the 6 foot g ator . Wally swam up to Felix and started eyeballing the Chief, who was only concerned about what Star was cooking him for dinner, and oblivious to the possibility that something was looking at him as dinner! Wally stroked over to within 15 feet of the side of our boat, floating lazily on the surface and watching his potential meal strut back and forth along the cabin top. After about 10 minutes, the hungry gator slowly drifted back in the current until he held himself about 30-50 feet behind the boat, gently swishing his tail back and forth to hold in position for the next half hour. Lucky for the Chief there were no missed steps or slipped footing, and eventually Wally swam away. We h...

This morning the anchor came back aboard just as the first rays of light were bending around the horizon to brighten the sky. Felix made about 30 miles by 11:30, and we transited the Jekyll creek which was the first of our problem areas but not the worst section. That will be tomorrow, the Buttermilk sound and the Little Mud River. Today we're riding with both hooks in the mud in a river called Wally's Leg , just off of the ICW south of the Buttermilk. As Star said today, "Georgia is pretty. Pretty buggy, pretty hot, and pretty shallow". We know there are other sides to the state, and we don't really dislike GA, it's just not always an easy trek down it's ICW . A lot of winding back and forth between rivers and sounds and inlets, but at least it's always interesting. Today while travelling up the Mackay River, only about 10 miles North of the St. Simons Sound and inlet, Star's eagle-like eyes picked up the unmistakable form of an alligator along...

...all men--kings & serfs alike--are slaves to other men & to circumstance--save alone, the pilot--who comes at no man's back and call, obeys no man's orders & scorns all men's suggestions. The king would do this thing, & would do that: but a cramped treasury overmasters him in the one case & a seditious people in the other. The Senator must hob-nob with canaille whom he despises, & banker, priest & statesman trim their actions by the breeze of the world's will & the world's opinion. It is a strange study,--a singular phenomenon, if you please, that the only real, independent & genuine gentlemen in the world go quietly up and down the... river, asking no homage of any one, seeking no popularity, no notoriety, & not caring a damn whether school keeps or not. Mark Twain, in a letter to Will Bowen, 8/25/1866 With plenty of Cumberland Island left to explore on our return trip, we took advantage of the pre -frontal weather and ma...

Felix is now anchored in the lee of Cumberland Island on the very southern end of Georgia. For those who haven't been clicking on the links like the one in the first sentence, they will show a map of exactly where we are anchored in every blog page as we make our way up to the Chesapeake. It would have been easy to only see the ugly industrial side of Fernandina, like the pulp plant pictured above that b elches noxious fumes out over the anchorage, but fortunately we had our friends Herb and Laura to show us the much nicer, greener, friendlier side of Amelia Island. We had a great time, and it's been our best stop since we headed north from Palm Beach. Even the Chief got to go ashore with us for lunch and beers at the Green Turtle, which is one of those relaxed type of bars where they see you walk up with your dog and no one says anything, but they go get him a water bowl to sip from while he hangs out at our feet. After the ladies made a quick grocery store run, we all went ...

Sunday was spent idling around the boat taking care of small projects, both of us moving a little slowly after a great time Saturday night with Fred and the acrobatic Rick from 'Freedom'. Pine Island has such a snug little anchorage it was a great place to hang out and avoid the Sunday boat traffic and we were able to scrape the waterline of 4 inch long grass and miniature barnacles that have accumulated already. Star made good on her promise of making my favorite dish after we crossed north of our starting point in St. Augustine. Lapin a la moutarde . For those like me who don't ' parlez vous ' very well, that's Rabbit in mustard sauce. Today we were underway at 7:15 heading north with a couple of stopping options available, but we were staying flexible and had no certain destination. We crossed the St. Johns River and transited the Sister's Creek area at low tide and were on a just barely rising tide for the notoriously shoaling Nassau Sound area. To say ...

As promised Tom from Irish Sail Lady delivered our repaired mainsail to us yesterday morning, so at slack tide in the afternoon with the boat pointing into the wind we ran it back up the stick and furled it in. Up at 5 am this morning, we had the anchor aboard by 6 and made the 6:30 am opening of the Bridge of Lions. After a detour into Camachee Cove Marina for 38 gallons of diesel and a topping of the water tanks, we were back underway at 8:15 and heading north to the Pine Island anchorage . We arrived with one other boat already here, the beautiful Hinckley Bermuda 40 'Freedom'. Plans are for a leisurely but hot and windless afternoon watching the multitude of dolphins feed around us in the obviously fishy anchorage. Still trying to decide what the plan is for the next few days, the weather is forecasting "nocturnal surge events" for the next few days. Not exactly sure what that means, it's the first time we've ever seen that terminology, but guessing we ...

Underway at 7 am yesterday, we made the 52 miles to St. Augustine by 3:30. We got passed by a couple of other sailboats yesterday, and after looking at the side of the hull from the dinghy I think that it's time to mow the lawn. Our two weeks parked in the nutrient rich North Lake Worth was long enough to grow a nice beard all the way around our waterline, and I think it's stealing a little speed from us. Still, we made it here in time to get the sail in to Tom and Linda, The Irish Sail Lady 904-377-0527, who came and picked it up and said that they'd have it back to us this morning!! Woo Hoo ! The incessant slapping of the mainsail's wire halyard inside the mast is driving us bonkers, so we can't wait to get the sail back up. We're anchored in the St. Augustine South anchorage , south of the eternally under-construction Bridge of Lions, and just off of the Municipal Marina. I wish I could say what a great anchorage it is, but really it sucks. I think the bottom...