We left Oriental and travelled the ICW to Beaufort, NC; visited our favourite spice shop to stock up on hot stuff. After an overnight from Beaufort and we arrived early morning in Wrightsville Beach; weather was crappy and sooooo cold we decided to stay in the ICW for the next leg to Southport where we splurged on a marina night at the St. James Plantation Marina (electric heaters). We had a great trip down the Cape Fear River with the tide and actually clocked 10.6 knots - the fastest Sea Holly has ever been!! Stayed inside to Charleston since the weather has stayed so cold - can't believe we have turned so soft - you would think we should be used to the cold north wind!
Overnight from Charleston to Fernandina Beach - Florida finally!! but it's still cold. Had a great visit with Jean and Bev (our Nova Scotia neighbors) on El Rio as they were just getting the boat ready to put in the water.
Outside again from Fernandina to St. Augustine and this time anchored north of the bridge opposite the Castillo San Marco, what a beautiful spot. We stayed in St. Augustine for my birthday - visited Sailor's Exhange and ate caramel apples, my favourite.
It's turned cold AGAIN so back inside. Stopped at New Smyrna Beach at the newly renovated City Marina (dug the electric heaters out again). New Smyrna is a great little town and the farmer's market was wonderful, especially the bread truck!! Many of us got stopped by the Environmental Police checking sanitation disposal and unfortunately many got fined as well; pretty stiff $250 per head. Luckily all waste on Sea Holly automatically goes to a holding tank so although we were checked, we passed!!
Bad weather coming so we pushed to arrive in Vero before it. Back in Vero Beach for provisioning but determined not to stay toooo long this year. We were here for the US Thanksgiving celebration and what a great time it was. About 180 cruisers got together for dinner - that's a lot of food and we sampled most everything - WOW!! Had a lovely visit with old friends; did the bus route to Walmart, etc. and then on our way again.
We anchored in Peck Lake for several days as it's one of Abby's favourites. We walked the beach for miles and Abby dug trench after trench looking for crabs. She's pretty good at finding them but I don't know how she stands all that sand up her nose.
Next stop - Lake Worth to wait for a window to cross to Lucaya. At least we are far enough south that it is warm finally, although the wind is supposed to be northerly for the next week so we'll see if the sweatshirts come out again. Surely we won't need the heater????
