Rescue Tape !!

Rescue Tape came to the rescue for us, about one week ago as we were traveling down the ICW, Chris said that she smelled diesel fuel. When she opened the engine compartment she saw diesel fuel spraying out if one of our fuel lines. When I went below I saw that it was a special braided hose assembly and could not be just replaced with some spare fuel line. So what to do? Then I remembered the "Rescue Tape" silicone self fusing tape I bought at last years boat show. After a few layers were streched over the line all was well and the repair has lasted leak free for the week and over 300 miles of motoring.

Break from the I.C.W.

Today we pulled into Fort Pierce Marina,not a graceful landing as we are in a slip for big boats and took a lot of maneuvering to get ropes set, it's so much easier to anchor out. Today the waterway was very choppy but we got to use the sail for two days in a row. It is now time to get a load of junk off the boat,everything not used in the past year gets taken to our trailer in Lake Wales and sorted. We fly to Seattle Nov 1st for our daughter's wedding and I am ready for a little land life. This I.C.W. Trip was full of rain and a lot less relaxing with a need to get here and not enough time to stop and sightsee. I hope to stay somewhere south next summer and then enjoy the sailing.  I really wanted to scream at Skipper Bob (but he is dead) His beloved anchorage guidebook made us go aground twice in one day. With all the copies sold they could pay Sea tow to actually measure depth yearly,we only draw 4 1/2 feet and went aground as soon as we tried to enter and not at low tide. Fortunately our little engine pulled us out after much coaxing and white knuckles. These anchorages were at mile 785.2 and 786.2.  We found a great anchorage outside of Fort Matanzas. It was deep,peaceful with dolphins and fish jumping all around.  This stretch was full of bridges but mostly 65 feet so few slowdowns. With sun shining it is a joy to meander down the scenic I.C.W. But bad weather can make for long days.  I was promised a special restaurant meal tonight,lots of on board meals prepared this trip. As we cleaned up and strolled up to the marina restaurant I spied the "closed for renovation" sign. He owes me that meal tomorrow.

Noreaster in Georgia

It was provisioning day on Wednesday at Isle of Hope Marina, love those free loaner cars. Last night we anchored out in the South River, thank God for our Manson anchor, it was 20 knots with serious gusts that made it feel like the bow was airborne but the anchor held. Early up after a night of hourly anchor checks and a stop at Golden Isle Marina at St. Simon's Island. Stopping caused me fear with the wind but the dockmaster made it painless. I was treated to a restaurant lunch then a nap made me quit saying "I want to go home". I forgot we sold our home. Anyway all is good and they have live music tonight with the lead singer from Blues Traveler and Ivan Neville, next generation of the Neville Brothers. Weather report sucks for the next several days so tomorrow is a sleep in late day,YEAH!
This I.C.W. trip has been so different. Wind,rain,gloom predominates but we are making progress and this makes the Seattle weather we are to experience next month seem lovely.

South Carolina !

We have made it to South Carolina and are at Georgetown, SC for the afternoon, there were 30 knot gusts forcast for this afternoon so I decided to take a break at the dock rather than anchor in a creek off of the ICW. The last week has been a test of our skills trying to predict where we will stay for the night and timing all of the inlets along the coast. At times we can be traveling at over seven knots on one side of an inlet only to be slowed down to three knots on the other side.Here is a video we took just before a inlet http://youtu.be/TisG_YgZj_k We also have to watch out for low tide around the inlets as there are areas that shoal to around five foot in the channel, so we try to pass those areas at high tide or at least 1/2 tide and rising. 175 more miles to go in South Carolina and then on to Georgia and the nine foot tides!