We finally wrapped things up enough to head out, and unfortunately we had a very strong ebbing current against us all the way through NY harbor and up the East River.  But going slow gave us more time to sightsee along the way.

This is our old friend and host, Freddie Olverson.  You'd be hard-pressed to meet someone more helpful, kind, and thoughtful.  Thanks for the hospitality Fred!

When we left Annapolis 4 years ago I didn't have anywhere to store my old 1976 Sunfish sailboat, so I sold her to friends who live near Olverson's.  They invited me to come and sail her, and eventually we all decided that I should buy her back. It was somewhat emotional for me to have my old friend back, and I relived some of my childhood sailing around the creeks like I used to on Kemah Lake in NJ.  She'll stay at Freddie's for the summer and we'll take her to Florida when we're southbound in the fall.  After 35 years she's still in great shape and most everything is original - even the sail.

We braved strong north winds in Currituck Sound to claw our way up the long narrow channel into Virginia. Once again, we have to contend with a number of bridges on strict schedules.

As we approached Norfolk we were treated to an air show with F-18s, big helicopters, and these E-2 Hawkeye AWACS planes practicing landings.

It was a long day and we were late enough that some bridges were going to stop opening during rush-hour. We waited in Great Bridge on the free dock for an hour, and ended up going through the lock and last bridge with this very large tug.

Our last bridge was opened so a huge ship could be pushed through by tugs - backwards! We were able to squeak through behind the last tug, but had to wait in the turbulent water while the tugs turned her around.

We were late getting to the fuel dock at Ocean Marine but they stayed open for us, and both boats were loaded with fuel and underway by 9pm. We had a short weather window, so we continued out into the Chesapeake overnight. At 4am the wind whipped up and the glassy seas turned into a washing machine. We had a rough ride for a few hours, but we were safely docked at Olverson's Marina off the Potomac by 9:30am. I was a long 24 hour run, but we saw a little rainbow just before we turned into the Yeocomico River - a good sign.

We made a brief stop in Palm Coast for some quick repairs. There's a wide range of people who live in the area, but a good number of them are retired. We invited our dock hostess Peggy out to dinner but she had other plans - she was going to The Senior Prom. Yep - the retirees were getting dolled up, donning gowns and corsages, and tripping the light fantastic! Gotta love it.

We oozed through the skinny water at Matanzas Inlet, and cruised past beautiful St. Augustine. There are just too many places to see and too many things to do... and never enough time.

We stopped for fuel in Fernandina Beach, FL and took 564 gallons at about $4 a gallon. This year's trip north is about 6000 nautical miles so keep your fingers crossed the prices come down a bit!
We made a short afternoon stop at Cumberland Island National Park where we ran into several DeFever and MTOA friends out in the anchorage. Unfortunately we only had time for one nice walk on the beach and through the woods since we wanted to travel offshore and a good weather window was opening up.

We ran about 24 hours offshore from the FL-GA border to Winyah Bay near Georgetown, SC and continued up the ICW to Myrtle Beach for a quick overnight rest. The ocean was beautiful - we had a very nice ride and a fair current, with some long visits from dolphins. I can feel a slight change in steering when a pod is surfing the bow wave. I love it when they roll on their side to look at us.

At our first lock we had 3 manatees, a small school of jacks, mackerel, and a HUGE tarpon (6' long) that locked through with us. 

This is the lock right before the Lake - although the 3 locks that lifted us to the Lake level only raised us a few feet, this lock has tall gates to protect from hurricane flooding.

The area is a bit pish-posh, and there were plenty of big yachts that made our biggest DeFever boats look small. 

The town has lots of lovely sidewalk cafes and restaurants, book shops, antiques, and many other attractions.  Ringling of the famous circus built an opera house here, and there is a lot of live music and other arts.  I tend to prefer nature to a city, but Sarasota is very nice.

You have to love a place that builds giant statues of happy things like kissing!

The Rendezvous - a gathering of people who own or love DeFever boats - was attended by about 130 people and 25 boats.  We had a big dock-tail party, two mornings of seminars given by members, a Hawaiian themed party, silent auction (we got a great deal on a week at a marina in Jupiter, FL where good friends live), and boat visitiations so we could meet people and exchange ideas.  It was a marvelous event and everyone had a great time. 

Rendezvous are hectic and exhausting - so many people, too little time.  It was all over too quickly and we had to head south towards Ft. Myers to take the Okeechobee Waterway across the state of Florida - a short-cut to the east coast.  With the drought conditions the Lake level was getting dangerously low, and we needed to get across while we still could.  The alternative would be to go back to the Keys and up the other side of the state - a much longer trip.  The Okeechobee Waterway will be the topic for the next blog entry - stay tuned.

Here's a map to show some of the area we covered.  We anchored near Everglades City in the upper corner of the Everglades National Park, in the area known as the Ten Thousand Islands (there are actually about 40,000).  From there we headed up past Marco Island, Naples, and Ft. Myers to Sanibel Island and Cayo Costa State Park.

Out in the Gulf our friend Terry from Marathon buzzed us in his beautiful classic float plane - a real thrill!

Before we left the Keys we did a photo shoot for him while he flew across the setting sun.  He has a small collection of classic planes, and he flew this one down from Illinois for the winter.

We anchored in the NW corner of Everglades National Park, among the rabbit's warren of mangrove and wooded islands near Everglades City - it felt very remote and wild.  We took the dinghy a few miles to the tiny town ("city" is a misnomer) to have lunch at the famous Rod & Gun Club. 

It's an interesting old place but it seems a bit past it's prime. 

The setting on the porch was lovely for lunch, but the food was marginal but ridiculously expensive and the wait staff barely spoke to us. 

The little museum in town was great though, and we only wished we had more time to explore the endless natural beauty in the wild areas... but the weather was changing and we had to go while we had a good weather window. 

We just got our anchor down near Sanibel  Island when this storm hit - we only had 30 knots of wind but the Keys saw 55+ knots!  The winds were predicted to kick up a bit so we moved up to nearby Cayo Costa State Park - there's a great protected anchorage in there that's tricky to enter, but worth the trouble. 

Yes, the end of the line... end of our time here in Marathon.  This is the signpost down in Key West for the end of Route 1, down where everything is the "southermost".  We went down to KW with friends for a little exploring, and we paused to see some of the well-established crazies on Mallory Pier for the daily sunset party.  Here's the Southernmost Bagpiper.  Only in the Keys...